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HUNGARY
Looking down on Budapest and the Danube
The management team at ÉNYKK , Péter Mánik (centre) and László Kenesei (right)
Every tyre is tested by shearography
Retreading in Hungary
ÉNYKK – Retreading for Bus Fleets
Hungary is a country that is familiar with retreading. It has seen the same body of people face renewed governmental styles many times over the years. Centrally located in Europe, Hungary was once a much larger country, until 1920, when facing reparations for being on the wrong side in the First World War, and the need to destroy forever the structures of the House of Hapsburg, Hungary was carved up, losing a whopping 71 per cent of its territory and 58 per cent of its population. Which, in a way must have sealed its fate for the next 70 years. Hungary acquiesced with the invading Germans in 1940 and by 1945 had fallen under the care of the Soviet system as an unwilling satellite of the USSR.
A brief student rising in 1956, partly generated by Western posturing and political propaganda that never materialised into support, was put down ruthlessly by the Russians. There followed a hiatus until 1989 when the Hungarians were the first to overthrow their communist government in a generally peaceful revolution – this time the army and the police stood with those calling for change.
Then, Hungary was very much a backward European country, with poor roads, and as many horse and cattle drawn vehicles as there were Ladas and Trabants. Today, Hungary is a transformed nation, with a motorway network that would make the average British motorist green with envy. It is also home to some of Europe’s larger trucking fleets and a key link in the supply route from Turkey and the Balkans through to the markets of Western Europe. It is a country with its population on the ascendency. Its capital, Budapest is now regaining some of its former
g l o r y.
Hungary has a population of around
9.9 million people, mostly of Hungarian descent, with almost 71 per cent of the population living in urban areas.
The road network in Hungary shows extremes, with just short of 200,000 km of roadway, only 76,000 of which is paved, whilst it boasts 1,477 km of modern motorway that links the country to its capital, and to its neighbours.
In terms of commercial vehicles, Hungary has not returned vehicle parc details that are publicly accessible for some years now, but our host in Hungar y, Peter Szabó advises that the truck new tyre market in Hungary stands at around 150,000 units and that the total retread sector produces around 50,000 units per annum from 13 retreading plants, all pre-cure operation, save one that produces hot cure, with one still manufacturing car tyres.
The biggest challenge facing the retread sector in Hungar y comes from Chinese tyres, and these are the cheapest of Chinese tyres, poor quality, low mileage products that drivers have reportedly refused to use because they are so dangerous. The sale of Chinese tyres in Hungary is through a single source, and here you will need to read between the lines. All Chinese tyres sold in Hungary are purchased through one supplier, variously described as a Ukrainian or Russian, who operates out of the Russian embassy. Hungarian tyre wholesalers have gone to China to buy tyres and have found that they cannot buy, in bulk, at the rate the current importer sells these tyres to the Hungarian market. By undercutting the market this individual has insured an income of cash, as there will always be those who will buy as cheaply as possible at the point of purchase.
If you ran a large fleet of vehicles that were largely all the same and used the same tyres. If you ran the maintenance services of that fleet “in house”, then it would possibly be a logical extension to run in- house tyre management and retreading services.
That is exactly what some bus companies do, particularly in markets where retread quality from independent suppliers has perhaps not met their requirements. This is a solution seen in public transport operations in many countries.
In the case of Hungary, bus operator ÉNYKK has inherited the
transportation, and the bus and truck fleets were a national asset controlled by the state. When the Soviet era ended, that public monopoly was broken up. There were then some 24 public transport companies covering Hungary. However, the co- operative nature of business was not lost entirely, and ÉNYKK started operating a retread plant that served a number of bus companies.
On 1st January 2015 politics became involved in public transport, and much else in Hungary’s economy, by creating a
retread operation in the Gyor region, and is dedicated to maintaining retreading as part of its tyre management and fleet savings operation for the foreseeable future.
Now, there are adults around today who were not around during the Soviet era, but this is, in some ways, where the story of the ÉNYKK operation began. For back in those times everything was state controlled. That included all
series of seven regional bus companies that must now operate with a unified service and standardised operational procedures, including IT and paperwork. On the face of things a positive move if it brought standard practices and if retreading, as part of that deal was spread further across the market. ÉNYKK had been retreading up to 7,000 tyres per annum, but with competition, even in the closed
30 Retreading Business