GREENVILLE, SC - It's going to take a few years for the retread market to return to 2005-2006 levels, Marc Laferriere, vice president of marketing, Michelin Americas Truck Tires, recently told www.moderntiredealer.com.

"For one thing, we need original equipment (tire sales) to go back up" in order to "inject" more casings into the marketplace, he said. "And we need replacement (sales) to go back up and inject some casings."

If both things happen, "then I think we'll be back to the 14-million retread unit range. But we're not close to it now."

This past year was a challenging one for retreads, but the new truck tire market had it even worse, said Laferriere. "We're bracing ourselves for the fact we're now entering a third year of record low influx of new tires at OE and a slow replacement market. We might be chasing some casings this year.

"If the market picks up during the second half of the year, I think we're going to see a lot of customers re-equip some equipment they've parked over the last 12 months, and of course, they're going to be looking to buy some retreads.

"So on one hand, we may see some customers consider a second retread where they did not do a second retread before," he continued. "That's good for business, and it's also good for a business that can guarantee the quality of the casing through inspection."