The rubber industry produces both natural and synthetic rubber, with the Asia-Pacific region being the largest market. Chloroprene rubber is widely used in automotive and electrical parts, while thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) compounds are becoming more popular due to lower costs and wider uses. The natural rubber industry relies on rubber trees, with Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia being the largest producers. Synthetic rubber prices are affected by global oil prices, while natural rubber supplies are more cyclical but becoming more stable due to cloning.
The rubber industry is a large collection of producers of synthetic rubber compounds that derive rubber from petroleum, as well as the production of natural rubber. As of 2005, nearly 21 million tons of rubber were produced worldwide and almost half of this was natural rubber. Forecasts in 2011 estimated that the global rubber market for synthetic chloroprene, one of the most widely used varieties of the material, would rise to 445,300 tons by 2017.
Rubber manufacturing is big business due to the extremely wide range of applications for the substance in its many forms. Chloroprene rubber is used in a variety of automotive and electrical parts, adhesives and more. It is also used in automotive tires, and increased production capacity by Asian and Latin American producers of this staple product is fueling its growth. Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) compounds are also becoming increasingly dominant in the rubber industry and are replacing the more traditional synthetic chloroprene products due to lower manufacturing costs and a wider range of uses. TPE is made into products for industries as diverse as construction, aerospace, and forestry.
The largest growing market to date for rubber products is the Asia-Pacific sector, which is dominated by China. The demand for rubber in this region as of 2011 is growing at a rate of 3% annually and is expected to continue at this level until at least 2017. Global consumption in the rubber industry as a whole is dominated by the production of tyres, which uses nearly 60% of all rubber produced each year.
The natural rubber industry relies on rubber trees that can live for about 32 years each, resulting in 25 years of useful rubber production. The most productive trees in the latex industry produce approximately 4,409 pounds (2,000 kilograms) of dry rubber per year for every 2.5 acres (10,000 square meters) of rubber trees on a plantation. While synthetic rubber prices rise and fall directly in response to global oil prices, the latex rubber market is also indirectly affected by oil trading.
Most latex rubber is produced in the nations of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Production in Vietnam has also grown significantly since 2006, although the rubber industry’s market share of synthetics is slowly phasing out natural latex. Natural rubber supplies to the global market tend to be more cyclical due to weather conditions, but the cloning of rubber trees has led to more stable production levels over time.
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