Retreading is now gaining renewed attention as it allows fleets to extend tyre life, reduce waste, and lower operating costs. At a time when sustainability and cost control are both top of mind, Michelin is expanding its retread capabilities in Canada, giving fleets yet another way to get more value out of every casing.

At Michelin’s Canadian retread facility in Ontario, James Menzies spoke with Kelsey Oliver, director of sales for retreading in North America. They discussed how the process works and why fleets are increasingly embracing it.

Oliver: We’re keeping casings out of the landfill. So the idea with retreading is that we can get multiple lives out of a tire. We could save the fleet or the end user a significant amount of money and keep waste out of the landfill. It’s better for all of us.

Menzies: Okay. Now you retread not only casings for Michelin, but other casings as well. Tell us a little bit about the process. Nothing proprietary, but just tell us a little bit about the process you go through here.

Oliver: Yes. Through the MRT process, every casing comes in and gets inspected to make sure that we can retread it. So, obviously, with any of the tier one casings, most of them can be retreaded more than once. Some of the tier three and tier four cannot. Our retreaders will try to retread anything and put MRT rubber on it, but it depends on the condition of the casing when it comes in and the quality of the casing.

Menzies: And where we are today, we’re right here in Ontario, you’re doing retreading here in Canada. And tell us a little bit about the specifications. Your reject rate is extremely low here.

Oliver: Yeah, I won’t get into the specifics of how low it is, but I would say that the reject rate of an MRT retread is lower than some of our competitors’ new tires. So our goal, as we continue to improve the retread process and the materials that we put in, is to continue to improve that. We, by far, have the lowest reject rate of any retreading manufacturer, but we strive to be better. So, as we roll out new technology in the plant through equipment or through some of the rubber compounding, etcetera, our goal is to be even better than we are today, and we strive to have a retread that’s as good as a new tire.

Menzies: Okay, and benefits to the fleets, in addition to the sustainability benefits, there are financial benefits, too.

Oliver: Yes. So it’s, of course, much cheaper to put a retread on than it is a new tire. Depending on what retread you’re putting on and encasing, the price varies. But certainly, it’s a significant cost difference or cost savings to the fleets. Most of the large fleets in North America recognize that, whether it’s UPS, FedEx, or Walmart, and they recognize the savings, so they take advantage of it.

Those days of a perception of a retread not being as good as a new tire or the quality not being as good are pretty much gone. So we’re seeing more and more fleets move to retreading than in the past because of the cost savings, sustainability, and the quality aspect of it.

Menzies: And what’s your message to a driver who says that they don’t trust retreads?

Oliver: Give us a shot. We’ll prove you wrong. It’s easy to share numbers with a fleet, but it’s another thing to actually try it. If a driver tries it and doesn’t like it, we’ll help you out with a new set of tires. But certainly, the proof is in the pudding. And in those fleets that give us a shot, they don’t go back.

Menzies: Lastly, you have a station inside showing all the ingredients in a tread. Is that the same on a retread tread as it is on a new tire?

Oliver: So our retread tread does use the same rubber compounding as the new tire in the pre-mold retreads. So what you get in, for example, the X Line Grip D today, when we launch that tire, when we launch the retread, you will have the same rubber compounding as you do in the new tire.

Menzies: Okay. And this site’s fairly unique as it does pre-mold and custom tread. What’s the difference between those two terms?

Oliver: So pre-mold, it comes literally as a roll, and we buff the tire, and we put on a new strip of rubber on the tread. On a custom mold process, again, it gets buffed off like it does on a pre-mold, but then it gets an amount of rubber applied to the surface of the tire and put into a press like a new tire. The difference is quality is very similar because the pre-mold quality has gotten so much better, but you don’t have a splice that you’ll notice. So some drivers and some fleets don’t like to see that splice. In some cases, it’s just a perception in their head.

But it comes out looking like a new tire because the presses are very similar to what you’d see in a new tire line.