Seized illegal retreaded tyres at a plant in Selangor.
PETALING JAYA: High cost and lax enforcement in the past have deterred many tyre retreaders from getting the proper certification, said the Tyre Retreading Manufacturers Association of Malaysia.
“It costs between RM20,000 and RM30,000 to get the Sirim certification. Following that, you still need to incur costs to get your tyres tested by Sirim twice every year, as well as hire a quality-assurance officer to maintain your standard,” said association president Chin Hong Meng.
He said he supported the initiative of government agencies in ensuring that retreaded tyres on the road are safe.
The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry held an operation to bust illegal tyre retreading operations in February.
Two factories in Selangor and Negri Sembilan were busted for producing retreaded tyres with fake Sirim certification.
The ministry, along with the Road Transport Department, the Malaysian Rubber Board and Sirim agreed recently that retreaded tyres must be labelled with its date of manufacture and must not be retreaded more than three times.
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Last Thursday, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said the ministry would carry out a review of the production standards of retreaded tyres for heavy vehicles.
“Even European countries have raised their production standards for retreaded tyres despite being in a cool climate zone. With the hot weather we have here, we also need to ensure that all our retreaded tyres are of high quality and compatible with the weather,” he was quoted as saying in Bernama.
The ministry will also carry out an operation this month to identify licensed and unlicensed companies producing retreaded tyres.
“For licensed manufacturers found to have committed the offence, their licences will be suspended, while for unlicensed companies, they will be closed down,” he said.
At present, there are 97 licensed companies producing retreaded tyres.
Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) said illegally retreaded tyres were dangerous because of their unpredictability.
“The MS244 (Sirim) standard is based on a number of other established ones such as the European Union standard. For tyres not in compliance with Sirim, the safety aspect and quality are questionable.
“There is no one who can say how the tyres were manufactured or whether they have been tested before being put in the market.
“Manufacturers can just ‘tipu sini, tipu sana’ (cheat here and there) to save cost,” said Miros’ Crash Reconstruction Unit head Ahmad Noor Syukri Zainal Abidin.
Sirim-certified retreaded tyres would be put through vigorous stress testing and a monitoring process, to the point the tyres are declared as good as new ones.
In fact, manufacturers complying with the MS224-2005 Sirim standard are expected to give the same warranty as new tyres.
According to the Tyre Retreading Manufacturers Association of Malaysia, retreaded tyres must also meet the MS1394 standard, which is the same criteria used for new tyres.
“There will be two audits each year by both Sirim and the Malaysian Rubber Board (LGM) which will pick a random sample for testing.
“The tyres’ endurance and performance must be equal to that of new tyres,” said association president Chin Hong Meng.
He said the Sirim-compliant factories retread around two million tyres per year but he estimated there were twice as many illegally retreaded tyres in the market.
Sirim-approved retreaded tyres are labelled with a yellow sticker.
The process of retreading a tyre, through hot curing or precuring, can take two to three days.
The hot curing method is akin to making a new tyre, where several compounds are applied onto a tyre casing before it is placed in a curing mould.
Precuring, on the other hand, is done via gluing a layer of precured tread onto the tyre casing.
The second method, according to association president Chin, is more complex but it allows the tyres to last longer.
“Ideally, a retreaded tyre using the precuring method should be even better than a new tyre. However, the process is more complex and more expensive,” he said.
Chin said that retreaded tyres cost around 70% of the price of a new tyre.
“Of course, if they provide us with their tyre casings, the price will only be 30% to 50% that of a new tyre,” he said.
