The tread of a tire or track refers to the rubber on its circumference that makes contact with the road or the ground. As tires are used, the tread is worn off, limiting its effectiveness in providing traction. A worn tire can often be retreaded. The word tread is often used casually to refer to the pattern of grooves molded into the rubber, but those grooves are correctly called the tread pattern, or simply the pattern. The grooves are not the tread, they are in the tread. This distinction is especially significant in the case of racing slicks, which have a lot of tread but no grooves.
The development of advanced retread designs, quality of retread compounds and eco-friendly tyres is highlighted in the global automotive retread market, which is expected to incur revenues of nearly US$8 billion by 2022, Technavio indicated in its 2018-2022 market report. It reiterated that retread tyre’s cost-advantage is a main growth driver in the market, as it finds high adoption in commercial vehicles, especially HCVs.
Indian rubber industry registered an annual turnover of $ 12,700 million in the year 2015-16, with the tyre sector contributing to $7,600 million, non-tyre sector $ 5,100 million and export $ 2,300 million
As many as 6,711 manufacturing units are operating in the non-tyre manufacturing sector in India at present, which include footwear products, moulded goods, tread rubber products, foam products, tyre tube & flaps, auto and cycle parts, adhesives, dipped goods, gloves, extruded rubber goods, beltings, hoses etc.