Elastically deformable plastics have been a necessity across the board, in technical applications and in everyday objects. Per year, more than 12.7 million tonnes of these polymers are consumed worldwide.
Ceresana, a German market research institute and consultancy company for chemicals, plastics, industrial goods, and packaging,with 10,000 trade industry customers in up to 60 countries, has recently completed its third analysis on the global synthetic rubber market.
The study includes styrene-butadiene rubber, butadiene rubber, ethylene-propylene-diene rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, chlorobutadiene, and polyisoprene. The current study deals with data over the years,starting from 2009 and projects data until 2025.
The most important sales market for synthetic rubber in 2017 were tyres: 58% of the total global demand were accounted for by applications in original equipment and replacement tyres. Synthetic rubbers are also used for numerous other products in 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 3.0% per year until 2025.
The second largest utilisationof rubbers is in elastically deformable engineering products with stable shapes such as conveyor belts, roll covers, hoses, profiles, seals, cables, molded parts, and roofing films. There’s an increasing requirement for rubber products across a broad spectrum of industries, from the chemical industry, engineering, and construction to electrics and electronics. Up till 2025, an expected global demand for rubber in the segments industry and construction is to increase by 2.4% p.a.
By far, the most important type of rubber is styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). About 5.1 million tonnes were processed in 2017. SBR is produced either by emulsion polymerization (E-SBR) or solution polymerization (S-SBR). While E-SBR accounts for approximately 72% of the total SBR demand, the market for S-SBR develops at a significantly more dynamic growth rate of 3.8% per annum.
The tyre industry is the dominating sales market for these two products as well as for butadiene rubber (BR), butyl rubber (IIR), and polyisoprene (IR). Ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM), chlorobutadiene rubber (CR), and acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) present a slightly different case as these rubber types are mainly used in industrial and construction products as well as for modification of other materials.
Chapter 1 provides a descriptive analysis of the global rubber market, including projections up to 2025. The development of revenues, demand, and production is analyzed for each region of the world.
Chapter 2 offers a detailed breakdown of 25 countries: demand, export, import, production, capacities, and revenues in regard to rubber. In addition, these countries are also analysed regarding to application areas. Market data on demand are split by types of rubber for each country.
Chapter 3 looks at the different types of application areas of rubber in detail, including data and influential factors on application in tires, automobiles, industry and construction products, modification of materials as well as other applications.
Chapter 4 analyses the demand for rubbers split by the types: styrene-butadiene rubber (E-SBR), styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR), polybutadiene rubber (BR), ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM), butyl rubber (IIR), acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR), polychloroprene rubber (CR), and polyisoprene rubber (IR).
The report also offers a directory of the most important synthetic rubber manufacturers including Arlanxeo Holding B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, JSR Corporation, Korea Kumho Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Nizhnekamskneftekhim JSC, PetroChina Company Limited, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec Corp.), Synthos S.A., and Versalis S.p.A.