Its president, Chin Hon Meng, said this was because companies under the association were accredited with MS 224:2005 certification as stipulated by the Road Transport Department (JPJ).

He said the mandatory product certification for retreaded tyres had been also gazetted by the government in November 2007.

He was responding to a statement by Works Minister Baru Bian on Jan 4 that statistics from the Malaysian Highway Authority showed more than 10,000 accidents in the country had been due to the use of retreaded tyres.

“The certification, whereby the tyres are put through endurance and performance tests, is in compliance with the MS 1394:2017 standards and equivalent to the European Commercial Vehicle Tyres Standards (ECE R109),” Chin told reporters here today.

“All the negative comments on retreaded tyres are being made without objective and technical knowledge.

“Blaming all defective truck and bus tyres on retreads is unreasonable.”

He said there were many other factors that could lead to accidents, including under-inflation of tyres, speeding, uneven roads and the lack of enforcement and monitoring of illegal tyre factories.

Chin said retreaded tyres were being used worldwide, including in the United States, Europe, Japan and Singapore.

He said some tyre distributors even hired qualified retreading tyre factories to produce tyres for them.

“This is happening worldwide. If the retreaded tyres are not safe, do you think they will want to appoint these factories and sell these tyres under their name?”