Revealed: The world's top 50 rubber product manufacturers for 2020

London – Major rubber product manufacturers held their ground in 2019, despite growing impact of the global pandemic, according to ERJ’s annual ranking of top 50 non-tire rubber goods makers.

The impact of the Covid-19 crisis had just started to register on the figures collated for this year’s annual survey of the global rubber-product manufacturing sector. 

As such, this year’s report – compiled in association with ERJ sister publication Rubber & Plastics News – offers an early-stage calibration point for the performance of the industry amid the global pandemic.

Based on financial reporting for the 2019 financial year, ERJ’s latest ranking of the world’s largest non-tire rubber product makers for 2019 reveal an industry already struggling to delivery any significant growth. 

Indeed, many had been looking to the second-half of 2020 as the point at which headwinds from US-China trade war and related slump in key markets, particularly automotive, would ease off. 

Such optimism was, of course, before reaching the dark economic tunnel created by the Covid-pandemic, which is set to take a heavy toll on most rubber product manufacturers over the next 12 months at the very least. 

Meanwhile, it is also worth noting that nine of the top 10 firms in this year’s ranking – with the exception of Parker-Hannifin – registered year-on-year declines in sales for 2019, as did 12 of the top 15 on the list.

Against this challenging scenario, it was perhaps unsurprising to see a steady look to this year’s ranking by sales of the top 50 rubber product makers – though there were some significant moves, largely due to merger & acquisition activity. 

Overall, however, there was just limited movement at the top of the Global Top 50 rankings for non-tire rubber goods producers. Led by ContiTech, the top-four remained unchanged, while the top 10 comprised the same companies seen in last year’s table – though with some leapfrogging among the lower positions.

Full report will appear in European Rubber Journal’s July/August issue