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Casing Salvage Rate: The One Number That Decides Whether In-House Retreading Pays

Casing yield is the share of worn tires that actually get retreaded. Here is what it measures, what benchmarks exist, and why running your own line gives you control over it.

Published October 2, 2026 · Good Hope Retreaders

Ask a fleet how much retreading saves and you will hear a percentage off the price of a new tire. Ask what share of their worn casings actually make it to the retread line and many cannot tell you. That second number, usually called casing salvage rate or casing yield, is where much of the real economics sits. A retread only saves money if there is a sound casing to put it on.

What casing salvage rate measures

Casing salvage rate is the percentage of worn-out tires that can be salvaged by retreading, and repairing where needed, and returned to service. It is a standard key performance indicator in fleet tire management. In fleet tire contract guidance it also appears as "casing yield %", alongside cost per mile and roadside response measures, and the same guidance describes contracts that set a rejection-rate ceiling, with 15% given as a typical cap. That is one published guide's description of typical contract terms rather than an industry standard, so treat it as a reference point, not a rule.

What benchmarks exist

Published benchmarks are thin, and the ones that exist come with caveats. We would rather say so than quote a number without context.

• One manufacturer's figure. Michelin reports a 90% average acceptance rate for its casings for a first retread, based on a study of more than 473,000 casings collected between 2015 and 2018 in the United Kingdom by an independent casing collector. That is the manufacturer's own claim about its own casings in one market, so it says little about a mixed-brand fleet in Ontario.
• Casing lives. Fleet-industry sources describe most fleets expecting two to three retreads per casing, and a well-maintained casing as capable of three or four. Retreads are commonly described as costing 30% to 50% less than comparable new tires.
• Scale of the practice. Retreads account for nearly 44% of commercial truck tires in the U.S. and Canada, and retread plants range in size from about 20 retreads a day to 1,000 or more, according to retread.org and TRIB.

Your own yield will depend on your brands, applications, and maintenance. The useful benchmark is your own number, tracked over time.

Why yield moves the economics

A simple illustration, with no dollar figures attached. Suppose a fleet sends 100 worn casings for retreading. At an 85% yield, 85 become retreads. At a 90% yield, 90 do. Every casing rejected is a casing that cannot deliver a retread life and has to be replaced with a new tire. Over many casings and several retread lives each, a few points of yield compound. This is arithmetic, not a case study.

Why running your own line gives you more control

When retreading is done by an outside party, a rejected casing usually reaches you as a line on a report. You learn that it was rejected, and perhaps a reason code, but you are rarely in the room when the decision is made. With your own line, the people inspecting casings are on your payroll, using your acceptance criteria, and sitting a short walk from the maintenance team and the tire records.

• You see the reasons. If rejections cluster around a particular defect, axle position, brand, or age, you can trace it back to inflation practice, impact damage, or purchasing and act on it.
• You set the standard. Inspection criteria follow industry practice, but a fleet that owns the line decides how to apply them and documents it. See our 5-point casing check and our look at non-destructive inspection methods.
• You can recover more. Repairable damage is not a reject. Skiving and repair done properly before buffing keeps casings in the program; see our guides to casing repair and storing casings before retreading.
• You protect the asset. Casing handling and storage affect what the inspector finds. Casings that sit in poor conditions lose options before they are ever inspected.

How to start tracking it

• Count worn tires removed from service, and count those accepted for retreading, over a fixed period. Yield is accepted divided by removed.
• Record the reason for every rejection, not only the count.
• Split the numbers by brand, size, axle position, and application. Averages hide the cause.
• Track retread count per casing as well, since second and third lives are where the savings accumulate.

Tracking this does not require owning a retread line, but owning one makes the feedback loop short. If you are weighing whether in-house makes sense for your volume, pair this with our payback analysis. We are a manufacturer-direct supplier of retreading equipment and consumables, not an operator of retread shops; the aim here is to help you judge what a line of your own would need to achieve.

Thinking about a retread line of your own?

We supply retreading equipment, consumables, components, and repair tools directly, with transparent all-in Canadian pricing and local Ontario service. Tell us your tire sizes and weekly volume and we will help you spec an inspection and repair setup that fits.

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