The Outlook and Significance of Tire Retreading

Tire retreading is a positive route for recycling scrap tires — an extension and reprocessing of the tire industry. It carries real significance for resource conservation and comprehensive use, and for shifting the growth model toward sustainability. In outlook, retreading, like tire manufacturing, is an indispensable link in the automotive and transport sectors.

For safety and other reasons, a vehicle tire's casing usually far outlasts its tread — an aircraft casing lasts about 6 times its tread life, a heavy truck about 3 times, a car about 1 time. So a single casing is often retreaded several times before its useful life is complete. Internationally the ratio of new to retreaded tires is about 10:1, and 5:1 or better in advanced industrial countries; by comparison China's ratio has long been low, once approaching 28:1 — leaving vast room to grow.

Economically and environmentally, retreading a tire uses about one-third of the raw material and costs 30–50% of a new one — saving money and cutting emissions. The industry has long faced small scale and low concentration; as resource constraints tighten and the circular-economy idea spreads, the value of retreading will become clearer, and larger, more standardized operations are the inevitable direction.