Rubber Journal Asia Synthetic Rubber
On the road to higher gains The automobile industry’s requirement for tyres
Lanxess and other enterprises, the top slot enjoyed by Sinopec and CNPC will be diluted and their combined share will drop to 44.1% by 2017.
remains to be a key growth driver for synthetic rubber. According to US research firm
Flurry of investments in Asia and Europe alogenated butyl rubber is a development priority in China. Last year, the realisation of Panjin Heyun’s 3 0 , 0 0 0 - t o n n e / year halogenated butyl rubber project filled the gap lacking in China’s tyre industry. Panjin Heyun also plans to increase capacity to 180,000 tonnes/year in the next three to five years. Zhejiang Cenway’s 50,000-tonne/year halogenated butyl rubber plant is expected to be completed and put into operation at the end of 2014. Last year, Russian petrochemicals firm Sibur entered into a venture with Sinopec to develop a synthetic rubber plant in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In addition, Sibur and Sinopec are also exploring the feasibility of establishing a joint venture to manufacture nitrile butadiene rubber and isoprene rubber in Shanghai. The production lines are expected to have a capacity of 50,000 tonnes/ year each. Meanwhile, a group of firms from Taiwan are investing in a naptha cracker to be sited at the Gulei Petrochemical Zone in Zhangzhou, China. The group has finally been given the nod by the government in what is reported to be the first regulatory approval since the lifting of an investment ban in China’s downstream petrochemical industry. The US$263.6 million naphtha cracker will be producing ethylene and propylene intermediates for synthetic rubber to help meet the rising demand for the latter in Taiwan. Moreover, Taiwan, which imports around 348,000 tonnes of ethylene, expects the China facility to buffer any local shortage of the feedstock in the future. In India, Indian Oil Company (IOC) has built the country’s first-of-its-kind naptha cracker plant at its Panipat Refinery to bolster synthetic rubber production. IOC is implementing a technology based on butadiene available from the Panipat naptha cracker complex to produce SBR used in the manufacturing of automotive tyres, conveyor and fan belts. In this venture, IOC is joined by Taiwan Synthetic Rubber Corporation (TSRC) and Marubeni Corporation, under the Indian Synthetic Rubber (ISRL) banner. The 958 crore facility is designed to produce 120,000 tonnes/ year.
Freedonia’s latest world tyre study, the increase
H
in demand for tyres from Asia, in particular China and India, is estimated to reach 4.3% annually through 2017 to 2.9 billion units. This should bode well for the synthetic rubber industry, says Angelica Buan in this report.
Synthetic rubber on a roll in Asia lobally, synthetic rubber demand will reach 13.4 million tonnes by 2015, says Global Industry Analysts (GIA) in its latest study. It identifies end-use market industries of automotive and tyres as important determinants in building up or driving down demand. Furthermore, GIA says that the global synthetic rubber industry is tied to the dynamics in the motor vehicle market. The Asia Pacific region dominated the market for synthetic rubber in 2012, accounting for an estimated half of global rubber consumption and output, according to a report by German research firm Ceresana. It says that the region is expected to continue to gain market share until 2020, with the automobile industry, and the growing demand for tyres, as well as industrial and construction products propelling growth in the market. Environmental concerns toward crude oil and its derivatives is seen by Ceresana as a deterrent for the industry to surge forward faster. Meanwhile, Transparency Market Research says that China is the world’s largest producer and, at the same time, a key consumer of synthetic rubber for its large production plants for tyre and other products. The research firm says that China’s synthetic rubber capacity reached 4.98 million tonnes/year in 2013, accounting for 27% of the global synthetic rubber capacity. Styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and polybutadiene rubber (PBR) are China’s major synthetic rubbers produced, contributing 34.4% and 33.3% respectively to the total capacity in 2013. Chinese synthetic rubber giants Sinopec and CNPC together had a lion’s share of 52.4% of the capacity last year. However, with the entry of Panjin Heyun, Liaoning Northern Dynasol,
G
2 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2014
w w w. r u b b e r j o u r n a l a s i a . c o m