OmniSource has appointed Rob Montasser as Vice President of Sales for the US market.

Montasser will be based in Dallas and collaborate with the leadership team to drive US sales and operations, particularly for Omni United Group’s flagship brand, Radar Tires. In his new role, he will focus on expanding market share, optimising sales strategies, managing sales channels and enhancing brand presence.

With over two decades of experience in sales leadership, organisational development and strategic planning within the tyre, automotive and other industries, Montasser has held various senior leadership positions at Falken Tire, Dunlop Motorcycle Tires and Goodyear. During his stint as Vice President at Falken Tire, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Rubber North America, Montasser led the company for Passenger Light Truck (PLT) and Truck and Bus Radial (TBR) tyres to drive unit growth and enhance sales execution across multiple channels.

GS Sareen, President and CEO, Omni United, said, “The US is a key market for us with immense growth potential. With Rob’s extensive experience, I am confident we will expand our presence and continue to grow. I am excited to welcome Rob to the Omni family and look forward to working closely with him to drive our success forward.”

Montasser said, “I am thrilled to join the Omni family and I look forward to working with our great team to drive growth and innovation in the US market. Together, we will build the Radar brand so that it delivers an exceptional value proposition for our dealers, for the independent retailers and, of course, for the end user.”

From advanced materials and compound development to intelligent production, testing, simulation and regulation, the global tyre technology community returns to Hannover on 2, 3 and 4 March 2027.

Tire Technology Expo will open its 27th edition next March across Halls 19, 20 and 21 at Deutsche Messe, Hannover. For tyre manufacturers, vehicle OEMs, material developers, production engineers, technical directors, researchers and regulatory specialists, it is one of the few dates in the calendar when the complete tyre development and manufacturing chain can be examined in one place.

That breadth is increasingly important. Tyre performance is being reshaped by changing vehicle architectures, tighter sustainability targets, evolving regulation and the growing role of data in development and production. Progress rarely depends on one isolated technology. It requires decisions across materials, design, process engineering, quality control, testing and the factory systems that connect them.

THE FULL PRODUCTION CHAIN, IN ONE VISIT

Across the three halls, the 2027 exhibition will present more than 240 technology and materials solutions. Visitors will be able to investigate raw and reinforcing materials, speciality chemicals, process oils and compound development alongside mixing, extrusion, calendering, tyre building, mould, curing and cutting technologies.

The show floor will also cover factory automation, handling and logistics, in-line measurement, X-ray inspection, uniformity and balancing, RFID, smart tyres, simulation software, lifecycle monitoring, recycling and homologation. It is a practical opportunity to assess how individual technologies perform within the wider production environment rather than viewing each stage in isolation.

A plant manager can move from dosing and mixing to material handling and process control. An R&D engineer can discuss compound properties, test methods, modelling and production feasibility during the same visit. Vehicle OEM teams can meet specialists in tyre behaviour, data acquisition, simulation and connected-tyre applications, as well as the companies responsible for turning those developments into repeatable industrial processes.

The 2027 exhibitor list is already bringing together major machinery, automation, materials and testing organisations. Confirmed names include VMI Group, HF Group, TROESTER, KraussMaffei Extrusion, Rockwell Automation and Siemens, together with ARLANXEO, Asahi Kasei, Evonik and Henkel. Testing and development expertise is represented by organisations including MTS and Applus IDIADA.

THE CONFERENCE: SUBSTANCE BEHIND THE INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS

The 2027 speaker lineup is going to be released in the very near future, with the direction of the three-day Tire Technology Expo Conference already clear. The presentations will highlight the scientific, technical, business and regulatory contributions, with an emphasis on genuine insight, practical experience and application-led case studies rather than corporate presentations.

The highlighted subjects reflect the decisions now facing tyre manufacturers and their customers. They include sustainable manufacturing, circularity, retreading and material reuse; advanced and alternative materials; requirements linked to the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, deforestation rules and homologation; tyre and road wear particles and the implications of Euro 7, including a specific focus on C3 tyres; virtual tyre development, testing, modelling and simulation; intelligent connected tyres, sensors and data applications; AI in R&D and manufacturing; supply-chain resilience; and tyre integration with electric, autonomous and software-defined vehicles.

The programme is being shaped with input from an advisory group that includes senior expertise from Continental, Michelin, Tyres Europe and the University of Twente. The conference is set to bring together more than 170 expert speakers and over 100 hours of presentations and panel discussions across three days, creating a concentrated forum for tyre makers, vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, regulators, research institutions and academia.

For delegates, its value goes beyond individual presentations. The format allows the technical and regulatory implications of a development to be tested against different viewpoints, often while the relevant materials, equipment and measurement technologies can be examined a few steps away on the exhibition floor. Delegate passes also include hospitality, private networking, access to the awards and post-event access to presentation materials. The programme and delegate registration will be released in due course.

DEVELOP SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE THROUGH THE SHORT COURSES

Four specialist short courses will run during the event week, with the full 2027 programme and booking details to be announced. The established subject range spans tyre mechanics, mathematical modelling, regulations and reinforcement, with formats ranging from one to four days.

These courses are intended for professionals who need more depth than a conference session can provide. Previous programmes have taken participants through subjects such as tyre structure and compounding, grip and durability, finite-element and real-time modelling, tyre-road interaction, EU and UNECE regulatory frameworks, type approval, tyre labelling, reinforcement properties and fatigue testing.

For engineers, scientists, technical managers and regulatory teams, the courses provide a concentrated opportunity to strengthen knowledge that can be applied directly to current development and manufacturing work. They also offer a valuable common technical foundation for colleagues moving into new responsibilities or working across different parts of the tyre and vehicle industries.

RECOGNISING THE WORK MOVING THE INDUSTRY FORWARD

The Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence will again place the industry’s strongest recent work under the spotlight. The 2027 awards cover 11 categories across environmental achievement, chemicals and compounding, materials, R&D, manufacturing, supplier performance, tyre concepts and finished products. Access to the ceremony is included with a visitor pass and takes place right after the networking drinks, giving the wider expo audience an opportunity to see which developments are setting the benchmark for the sector and to catch up with new and existing connections.

PLAN THE CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER

Tire Technology Expo is built around practical progress. It is where a new material can be assessed against production requirements, a modelling approach can be discussed with vehicle and tyre specialists and an equipment investment can be examined with the engineers who will support its implementation.

The exhibition is open to tyre industry and related professionals, and visitor registration is now available. Conference delegate registration and short-course booking will open separately as the 2027 programmes are confirmed.

India’s recycling industry is becoming more technology-driven, formalised and commercially sophisticated, but women remain underrepresented across its operational and technical functions. GRP Ltd Executive Director Hemal Gandhi believes a new generation, increasingly exposed to sustainability and circular-economy thinking, could begin changing that equation. Recently appointed as Chairperson of Material Recycling Association of India’s Women in Recycling Committee, Gandhi is pushing for greater participation, capability building and visibility as the sector moves beyond conventional waste processing towards advanced resource recovery and sustainable-material manufacturing.

A new generation of professionals exposed to sustainability and circular-economy principles will drive greater participation of women in India’s recycling industry, according to GRP Ltd Executive Director Hemal Gandhi, who was recently appointed Chairperson of the Women in Recycling Committee at the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI).

Gandhi acknowledged that women’s representation across the recycling industry remains limited, particularly outside conventional support functions. However, she sees an opportunity for this to change as second-generation members of recycling businesses enter the sector and younger professionals increasingly encounter sustainability and circularity through universities and education.

“A lot of the second generation has come into the business,” Gandhi told Tyre Trends, adding that the newer generation is more receptive to entering recycling because it increasingly understands the industry’s broader environmental purpose.

For Gandhi, the immediate priorities for increasing women’s involvement are participation, capability building and visibility.

She wants participation to extend beyond corporate and leadership positions into technology, operations, engineering, research and development, entrepreneurship and commercial functions.

“I’d like to encourage greater participation of women across the recycling value chain,” Gandhi said.

She added that stronger platforms for knowledge sharing and mentoring are needed, with mentor circles among the mechanisms being considered to engage a wider audience.

Visibility represents the third element as she wants greater recognition of women already contributing to recycling while strengthening connections between established industry leaders and the next generation.

The broader objective, she said, is to make recycling a more inclusive, professional and future-oriented industry and ensure women have a meaningful role in determining its next phase of growth.

“Women bring extraordinary attention to detail, discipline, resilience and an ability to see both the task and the people around it. But I don’t want women to be valued only for these qualities. I want them at the table, making the big decisions,” noted a confident Gandhi.

GRP’s own experience illustrates some of the barriers. Gandhi said women joining the company’s Sholapur operations were initially concentrated in support functions including administration and human resources.

Changing that required what she described as a ‘mindset shift’ within GRP itself. The company has since expanded their presence into manufacturing.

“We are pros at multi-tasking and know how to get the job done. We’ve successfully represented plenty of industries before and now it’s recycling’s turn to take centre stage,” she said.

Women’s representation at GRP varies across locations based on the job requirement and talent availability. The head office has the largest women participation of 28.57 percent. The reclaim rubber and Pyrova business combined contribute to about 13.30 percent with substantial women participation on shopfloor at all shifts.

The plants in Solapur and Ankleshwar show 19.32 percent and 17.81 percent, respectively, which are far higher than the industry average of 10–11 percent.

The focus is to create opportunities of women participation in the plastics business as well.

BROADENING BASE

The push for broader participation comes as India’s tyre-recycling ecosystem itself undergoes significant change.

Gandhi said tyre recycling now has strong representation within MRAI with participation increasing across the value chain. The ecosystem has expanded beyond conventional scrap processing to include collection, aggregation, mechanical recycling, crumb rubber, reclaim rubber, pyrolysis, devulcanisation, retreading technologies and downstream users.

MRAI’s tyre-focused sessions and programmes have also seen increased participation, according to Gandhi. She sees the association’s role extending beyond industry representation to providing a platform where stakeholders can engage on policy, standards, technology and development of end markets.

The next opportunity, she said, is to deepen representation across the tyre-recycling value chain.

Gandhi described India’s tyre-recycling industry as being at an inflection point with Extended Producer Responsibility emerging as a significant catalyst.

The waste-tyre framework has brought greater attention to end-of-life tyres, encouraged formal recycling channels and provided recyclers with a more structured position within the tyre ecosystem.

More companies entering the sector demonstrate growing interest, but Gandhi cautioned that regulation and creation of recycling capacity represent only the beginning.

“The next phase needs to concentrate on quality, traceability, responsible processing and end markets,” she said, adding, “Industry should not measure success only by how many tonnes of tyres are processed.”

Instead, the sector needs to examine how much material value is recovered from every tyre, the quality of those recovered materials and whether they ultimately enter higher-value applications.

She described EPR as a game changer that has established the framework, while the next challenge is developing a more transparent, technology-driven and circular system around it.

COLLABORATION OVER CONSOLIDATION

India’s tyre-recycling industry has historically been fragmented, though Gandhi believes it is gradually becoming more organised as regulations, technology and market requirements become clearer.

She drew a distinction between consolidation and collaboration.

“Companies operating in collection, dismantling, shredding, pyrolysis and retreading can have significantly different levels of technology and formalisation. The objective should therefore not simply be reducing the number of companies,” she argued.

Instead, India needs a more organised ecosystem with common expectations around compliance, traceability, quality, technology and responsible processing.

More clearly defined standards and EPR requirements will increasingly differentiate companies investing in quality systems and sustainable operations, she said.

Comparing India with more established recycling economies, 126 T Y R E T R E N D S | O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 6

Gandhi said the country has several advantages including a large domestic tyre market, substantial availability of end-of-life tyres, rubber-processing capabilities and an increasingly structured policy framework.

There is, however, no single international recycling model India can simply replicate because individual markets have developed around different collection systems, regulations and economics.

The common global direction is towards higher-value material recovery.

Products such as reclaim rubber and recovered carbon black are increasingly being developed as industrial raw materials rather than merely waste-derived outputs.

India is moving in the same direction, Gandhi said, with domestic recyclers already producing such materials and supplying to international markets.

“The opportunity is to combine India’s scale, manufacturing capabilities and entrepreneurial base with global best practices,” she noted.

EXPANDING CAPACITY

GRP, meanwhile, is positioning its recycling operations around recovering greater value from waste materials and developing applications capable of substituting virgin resources.

The company currently operates across five strategic locations and eight manufacturing units with installed capacity of approximately 122,000 tonnes per annum, according to Gandhi.

Its next step into end-of-life tyre recovery is being pursued through Pyrova Energy.

At Sholapur, GRP has commissioned a 15,000-tonne-per-annum continuous tyre pyrolysis reactor alongside an integrated crumb-rubber facility. The next phase includes expanding pyrolysis capacity to 45,000 tonnes per annum and developing recovered carbon black capacity.

The broader objective is to recover the different components of an end-of-life tyre while progressively improving the quality and value of each material stream.

Gandhi also highlighted GRP’s wider sustainability performance. She said the company reduced Scope 4 emissions by 55 percent, while the share of its energy requirements met through renewable sources increased to 48 percent from 37 percent in the previous year.

GRP has also received an EcoVadis Gold rating and published a comprehensive sustainability report covering initiatives across the organisation. It has also been recognised as a 2026 Avtar & Seramount ‘Best Company for ESG’, acknowledging its commitment to responsible business, transparency and accountability.

The direction, Gandhi said, is to recover more from every tyre, improve material quality and create additional applications for those recovered materials.

GAINING GROUND

Interest in recycled and renewable materials is increasing, although Gandhi said recycled content varies significantly depending on the material, application and performance requirements.

For reclaim rubber, she cited Rubber Board data showing domestic consumption of almost 167,500 tonnes in 2024-25, including about 67,000 tonnes consumed by automotive tyre manufacturers.

GRP supplies reclaim rubber to major tyre manufacturers globally, Gandhi said, adding that eight of the world’s top 10 tyre manufacturers are its customers.

She noted that recyclers and tyre companies need to work together from the product-development stage, developing materials and testing capabilities for specific applications and establishing appropriate quality and performance parameters.

Sustainability targets will translate into meaningful virgin-material substitution only when recycled alternatives meet requirements around quality, safety, consistency and economics, she added.

Despite India’s sizeable tyre-recycling ecosystem, Gandhi said a significant proportion of the industry continues to serve relatively lower-value applications.

“The next opportunity is to retain more of the material value contained within an end-of-life tyre by developing markets for high-quality reclaim rubber, recovered carbon black, pyrolysis products and engineered tyre-derived materials,” she noted.

Achieving that transition will require recyclers and downstream industries to collaborate on qualification, testing and application development.

Gandhi also argued that comparisons between virgin and recycled materials should move beyond price.

“Cost needs to be considered alongside performance, consistency, carbon footprint and supply security. Recyclers, meanwhile, will need to invest in process control, research and development and testing to improve performance, while scale, automation and energy efficiency will be critical to improving costs,” she contended.

NEXT PHASE

Greater standardisation and quality benchmarks will be among the most important enablers of the industry’s next stage, Gandhi said.

Tyre manufacturers and other industrial customers need confidence that recycled material purchased today will meet the same critical parameters when supplied months later.

This places increasing importance on testing protocols, traceability and credible certification.

Gandhi said standards should nevertheless avoid becoming barriers to innovation. Instead, they should be performance-based, allowing new technologies and materials to develop while providing customers with confidence around consistency and safety.

She sees MRAI as potentially playing a constructive role by bringing recyclers, tyre manufacturers, standards bodies, technical institutions and policymakers together.

GRP’s immediate priorities include scaling its next-generation reclaim-rubber business, ramping up the Pyrova Energy platform, commissioning recovered carbon black capacity and investing further in innovation and research and development to develop higher-value products and applications.

But Gandhi said her ambitions extend beyond the company.

Through her role with the Women in Recycling Committee, she wants to increase women’s participation particularly in leadership, technology and technical functions.

“The next generation of women in recycling should not just be entering the industry but shaping its technology, factories, businesses and future,” contended Gandhi.

Her message to young and aspiring women was not to make themselves smaller to fit the room but to prepare well, do the work, speak up and take their place.

That objective intersects with Gandhi’s broader view of where the Indian recycling industry is heading.

“India has an opportunity to progress from waste management towards resource recovery and sustainable-material manufacturing. Combining stronger regulation and standards with responsible manufacturing could help develop a globally competitive circular-materials industry,” she said.

For women entering the sector, that transformation could simultaneously broaden the types of careers available.

As recycling becomes more technical, formalised and closely integrated with manufacturing, Gandhi believes the new generation’s familiarity with sustainability and circularity could help accelerate that shift.

The German Rubber Industry Association (wdk) has appointed Michael Berthel as its new Managing Director, effective 1 January 2027. The decision was made by the wdk Executive Board, with Berthel set to succeed Boris Engelhardt, who is retiring at year-end at his own request after leading the association since 2011. Berthel brings deep institutional knowledge to the role, having served the wdk since 1998 and currently holding the position of Chief Economist.

Reflecting on Engelhardt's tenure, wdk President Michael Klein acknowledged the outgoing director's dedication over 15 years, noting that membership doubled during that period and the association earned worldwide recognition as the industry's voice. Klein expressed confidence that Berthel's extensive experience and strong network will further reinforce the wdk's role as the representative of the rubber industry's interests. The leadership transition is scheduled to take effect at the start of 2027.

Boris Engelhardt

Michael Klein, President, wdk, said, "We thank Engelhardt for his dedication over the past 15 years. During this time, not only has the number of association members doubled, but the wdk has also become known and recognised worldwide as the voice of our industry. With Berthel, we have gained a highly experienced and exceptionally well-connected expert as Managing Director, with whom we will further strengthen our position as the representative of the rubber industry's interests."

Gurugram-headquartered tyre major Apollo Tyres has appointed Abhineet Kothari as India Business Head – Vredestein Tyres, effective November 2026. In his new role, Kothari will be responsible for strengthening the presence and expanding the business of Vredestein, Apollo Tyres’ premium tyre brand, in the Indian market.

His appointment follows his tenure as Marketing Head, India and South-East Asia, at Apollo Tyres, where he led the company's marketing function after previously serving as Category Head – Passenger Vehicles.

In his new role, Kothari will focus on building the Vredestein brand, expanding its market presence and strengthening its positioning in India's premium passenger vehicle tyre segment.

Kothari brings over 13 years of experience across marketing, brand management, category leadership, sales and business management. Prior to joining Apollo Tyres in April 2024, he spent two years at Paytm as AVP – Payments, where he headed the profit and loss responsibility for the Recharge and Bill Payments business. He was also involved in brand marketing and communications for Paytm's mobile gaming business, First Games.

Prior to Paytm, Kothari spent nearly nine years with Castrol, holding various roles across category management, brand management and regional sales. His assignments included Category Manager, Senior Brand Manager, Regional Sales Manager and Brand Manager.

He began his professional career in the maritime sector as a Marine Engineer Officer with Shell Shipping, serving aboard very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and very large gas carriers (VLGCs) between 2007 and 2011.

Kothari holds an MBA in Marketing and Operations from the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, and a bachelor's degree in Marine Engineering from Jadavpur University.

His appointment comes as Apollo Tyres continues to develop Vredestein's positioning in India's premium tyre market, leveraging the brand's European heritage and premium product portfolio to address evolving consumer preferences.