Continental Tire the Americas March 17 announced it will be expanding its retreading business.
The company will open a precure flat tread manufacturing plant in Morelia, Mexico, and open six more retreading plants in that country. It will also sign U.S. dealers, all with separate territories, and use the resulting network of plants and dealers to manufacture and market what Paul Williams, vice president of Continental commercial vehicle tires, called “the Continental LifeCycle truck tire.”
Williams said this “. . .will be a new and innovative approach that ensures that there will be no retreads separate from new tire designs. Each retread design will be completely aligned with a new tire. We’ll be able to offer a retread that will exactly match every characteristic of a new tire. It will look and feel the same and give the same performance.”
He added, “We are the first major tire manufacturer in the U.S. making retreads without purchasing someone else’s legacy.” He explained the compounds and tread designs are what differentiate one tire design from another.
Although existing plants will be used to manufacture the tread and retread the tires, the tread compounds will be Continental’s and identical to those used in new tires. New molds will allow the manufacture of precure flat treads that provide exactly the same tread designs as the linked new tires, Williams said.
He explained the continuity this provides frees fleets from having to choose a retread design once it is time for tires to be retreaded. It also allows Continental’s dealers to sell one tire design to a fleet that will be used through two or more retreading cycles.
Williams said, “Our national fleet accounts asked for this.” He said they were looking for “complete solutions” that would make tire purchasing simpler and easier.