Rubber & tire industry in numbers

PROJECTS / RESTRUCTURING

PROJECTS

South Korea’s Kolon Industries is increasing tire cord production capacity at its facility in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam by nearly 60%. The group has earmarked KRW30bn (€20m) for the project, which will increase the factory’s overall capacity from 36ktpa to 57ktpa by January 2027.

Houston, Texas-based TPC Group has completed an upgrade project at its Houston operations to increase crude C4 processing capacity at the site: raising maximum sustained daily rate (MSDR) by 20% for butadiene production and bringing the total nameplate capacity to 500ktpa.

Mesnac has broken ground on a new tire mould and machinery production facility in Trang Bang Town, in the southeastern Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh. The project involves equipment purchase and installation costs of Yuan56.4m (€7.5m); land costs of Yuan16.32m; construction costs of Yuan29.1m; and working capital of Yuan5m.

Goodyear is to repurpose its truck & bus radial tire production facility in Danville, Virginia for the production of aircraft tires. Operational since 1966, the Danville facility employs 2,000 and is Goodyear’s only plant to manufacture aviation tires in North America.

China’s Zhongzhe Group has broken ground on a Yuan3bn (€400m) project to build a synthetic rubber plant in the eastern Chinese port of Ningbo. The unit is designed to produce 200ktpa of solution styrene-butadiene rubber and low-cis butadiene rubber.

Chinese tire manufacturer Wanli Tire has broken ground on a factory-build at the New Bavet Special Economic Zone in Svay Rieng province. It will have a total capacity to produce 10m units of passenger radial tires and 1.2m truck and bus radial tires. In the first phase, Wanli will invest $239m in capacity to produce 6m PCR units, the tire maker announced 12 Jan.

Nitto Inc. is establishing a “multimillion-dollar” manufacturing facility in Frankfort, Kentucky, to support automotive and aerospace sectors. The project will create 220 full-time jobs and is set to begin operations in spring.

Michelin has the go-ahead for a Yuan292m (€38m) project to upgrade its Shenyang, China site: adding capacity for the production of 830k passenger car tires per annum once completed.

JK Tyre has raised $100m from investor International Finance Corp. (IFC) to advance ongoing expansion projects in India. Up to $30m will go to JK Tyre, and $70m to subsidiary CIL to expand. The brownfield expansion includes increasing PCR production capacity at JK Tyres' plant in Banmore, Madhya Pradesh by 3.2m units/year: taking the total there to 15.5m units of PCRs per annum. TBR capacity at CIL’s site in Laksar, Uttarakhand is to rise by 280k units to total 2.25m tires/year.

M&A AND RESTRUCTURING

Soft demand for rubber blacks in Europe and North America has prompted Houston, Texas-based Orion SA to initiate a plan to reduce its non-plant workforce by 6%: realising $6m in annualised cost savings by 2025. Orion also expects its earnings projections for fiscal 2024 to fall below the previously guided range of $305-315m.

MARKETS

Italy’s plastics and rubber machinery makers expect to a see 9% year-on-year decline in revenue in 2024, reported trade association Amaplast. Sales value of the machinery is estimated to come in at €4.35 bn, down from the record high of €4.80bn reported in 2023. The setback was linked mainly to a 9.4% drop in exports value, from €3.59bn in 2023 to €3.25bn last year.

SHARE PRICES

Leading tire manufacturers’ share-price trends

Leading rubber product manufacturers’ share-price trends

MATERIALS

Tokyo – Natural rubber markets depicted a mixed picture in the trading week ended 10 Jan, with RSS3 rubber posting week-on-week declines and TSR20 making gains.

In Osaka, Japan, OSE’s June-2025 rubber contract closed 1.6% lower week-on-week amid moderate trading.

In Shanghai, SHFE rubber declined 0.5% compared to the week before amid significant long liquidation, Japan Exchange Group reported 13 Jan.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai INE rubber contract for March delivery rose 2.3% on the prior week, driven by “fresh speculative and fund buying.”

In Singapore, SICOM rubber contract for April delivery advanced 0.6% week-on-week on “active short covering.”

“Market sentiment remains steady, bolstered by optimism over potential Chinese government stimulus and reports of heavy rain in key producing countries,” JPX added.

Selected rubber futures price trends on major trading exchanges

(ERJ calculation for selected futures)

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