Ohio Congress members roll out bill to boost tire retreading
WASHINGTON, D. C. - Two congressional Democrats from northeast Ohio want to incentivize consumers to purchase retreads as a way to encourage buying American made tires and promote jobs at retreading facilities.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, Democrats from Cleveland and Akron, have introduced legislation that would provide a 30% credit to buyers of retreaded tires.
Brown told reporters Wednesday that their “Retreaded Truck Tire Jobs, Supply Chain Security and Sustainability Act” would encourage consumers and businesses to buy higher-quality American tires that can be retreaded, especially for heavy equipment and commercial trucks, instead of less expensive, lower-quality tires from China that can’t be retreaded and reused.
“This commonsense, bipartisan legislation is good for both the economy and the environment, and it will protect thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs here at home,” said a statement from Sykes, which noted that her congressional district has long been known as the “Rubber Capital of the World.”
Her legislation is cosponsored by Illinois Republican Rep. Darin LaHood, whose district includes a tire recycling facility. Brown said they hope to see the legislation passed independently, or included in a broader tax bill.
Retreading is a manufacturing process that replaces the tread on worn tires to help extend the life of the tire. According to a 2023 report, the industry employs over 51,000 workers and supports more than 268,000 jobs across the broader $28.4 billion U.S. tire industry. The 2023 report found that for every new premium tire sold in the U.S., 1.1 retreads are produced, but for the imported tires, less than 0.4 retreads are produced.
“This tax credit will make it more affordable for American consumers, truckers, and businesses to buy American retreaded tires, and allow Ohio companies and workers to better compete with shoddy imports from China,” said a statement from Brown. “This will mean more cars and trucks driving on American roads with American tires, made and retreaded by American workers.”
Johnny McIntosh, senior director of Commercial Services and Retreads at the Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, said retreading commercial tires provides not only a sustainable option for commercial fleets but also helps lower the operating costs for their business.
“It‘s a cost advantage to buy premium tires and then retread them” McIntosh told reporters. “Sometimes they retread them multiple times. With that said, though, there are still a lot of fleets that make a choice only on the initial price point of the tire. And so they end up buying these lower quality single use non- retreadable tires that are flooding the US market.”
McIntosh said most of the retreaded tires are sold to commercial vehicles, such as 18-wheelers, and large vehicles like dump trucks and mining vehicles. He said that companies that buy premium tires can often get them retreaded multiple times, with the retreaded tire costing about a third the cost of a new tire each time.
“So you see how that ROI (return on investment) really develops over the course of time for these fleets and it generates real savings,” McIntosh said. “That’s why all the big fleets do it.”
Brown’s office estimated there are 500 tire retreading facilities nationwide.
McIntosh said Ohio has 30 tire retreading facilities. He attributed a nationwide decline in the number of retreading facilities to consolidation, with a smaller number of facilities handling higher volumes of tires.
“If retread demand goes up, that’ll create more jobs across the country, for sure, in those facilities,” said McIntosh.
A statement from Paolo Ferrari, CEO of Bridgestone Americas, Inc. and Global Co-COO of Bridgestone Corporation, said that increased demand for U.S.-made retreaded tires will “create local jobs, reduce costs for tire customers, save energy, reduce material consumption and waste, and reduce dependence on tires imported from overseas.”
Because the Akron area has a large concentration of tire producers, John Rizzo, vice-president of the Akron-Canton Advocacy Alliance, predicted the legislation’s passage would help the region.
“Incentivizing the purchase and use of American made tires is just good policy in terms of creating a friendly business climate and advancing sustainability goals,” Rizzo told reporters.
By: Sabrina Eaton
Source: Cleveland.com