Rubber Journal Asia Synthetic Rubber
The billion dollar synthetic rubber industry Hit by trade wars and economic volatilities,
the automotive industry, like, hoses, cables, seals as well as window and door profiles. Analysts at Ceresana expect an increase of global rubber demand in the automotive industry by 3% per year until 2025. China, according to Freedonia in its 2015 global tyre report, accounted for nearly a quarter of the global tyre demand in 2014, and buoyed by the growth of its automotive industry, continues on this consumption trend years thereafter. A major driver for synthetic rubber is As well, the the rising demand for tyres acceleration of infrastructure in the country is a harbinger to the country’s industrialised production for key synthetic rubber types, namely, polybutadiene rubber (PBR), used also for tyres and other automotive parts; chloroprene rubber, used in cables, coatings and other automotive and construction components; nitrile-butadiene rubber, used for sealing applications, hydraulic hoses, other oil-resistant applications, and more. Other rubber types are butyl rubber, used for industrial, pharmaceutical and adhesives applications; polyisoprene rubber, used for tyres, pipe gaskets and other mechanical products; EPDM used for seals, radiators, and more; and thermoplastic styrene butadiene rubber widely used in automotive components, shoe soles, and others.
the synthetic rubber sector is anchoring in
the robust automotive sector to stay afloat, says Angelica Buan in this report.
T
he ongoing trade war between the US and China has escalated to the point that many industries are now nearly hanging by a thread. The synthetic rubber industry has not been spared from the fiasco, after China recently announced that it is levying a 10% tariff on various synthetic rubber and tyre products coming from North America. This is a reprisal from the US’s plan of exacting a 10% duty on an estimated US$200 billion worth of imports from China, including synthetic rubber and tyre products from China, and further increasing it to 25% by January 2019. That being said, The industry remains buoyant amid the impact of and amid US-China trade war on imports of synthetic rubber speculations products from these countries on how these banters would affect the rubber industry, analysts still have high hopes for the sector.
China takes the lead Touted as the world’s largest producer, consumer and importer of synthetic rubber, China’s output of synthetic rubber reached nearly 6 million tonnes in 2017, increasing by about 3.3% year-on-year, as cited by China Research & Intelligence (CRI) in its report on the Chinese synthetic rubber market from 2018-2022. As in the global proclivity towards a booming automotive industry, it is also China’s main downstream industry for both synthetic and natural rubber. The former accounts for over 70% of rubber consumption in China, with the main demand coming from vehicle tyres. From 2018 to 2022, CRI predicts that China’s tyre production will remain the driving force behind the development of the synthetic rubber industry, supported by the “OEM tyre demand from expanding automobile production, the tyre replacement demand from increasing automobile reserves, and the increase in tyre exports”.
Market takes the bull by its horns The synthetic rubber market is anticipated to remain bullish on account of a bustling automotive sector, and is predicted to be worth US$38 billion by 2022, research group Markets and Markets denoted. A major driver for synthetic rubber is the rising demand for tyres, globally, pegged to exceed by 4% to 3 billion units/year through 2019. Apart from tyres, footwear, industrial goods and other applications are steering the growth of synthetic rubber. During this period, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) market will account for over half of total tyre sales, which is indicative of the fastest growth in demand. The most important sales market for synthetic rubber in 2017 was tyres, according to German research firm Ceresana. Synthetic rubbers are also used for numerous other products in
3 OCTOBER 2018
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