Rubber & tire industry in numbers

PROJECTS

PCBL Chemical Ltd has selected Naidupeta, in the southeastern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh as the location for its sixth manufacturing facility in India - under its plan to reach total production of 1m tonnes per annum within three years. Currently, the Indian group’s carbon black production capacity stands at around 790ktpa. PCBL currently operates carbon black units at five locations; Durgapur (164ktpa), Kochi (93ktpa), Palej (142ktpa), Mundra (~225ktpa), Chennai, (~147ktpa).

M&A and RESTRUCTURING

Goodyear expects to cut 850 jobs at its Danville, Virginia site, which is being repurposed from making truck & bus tires to producing aircraft tires and mixing. To be mostly completed by the yearend, the plan carries pre-tax charges of $130-$140m but is expected to increase group operating income by $15m in 2025 and by $65m/yr thereafter. Operational since 1966, the Danville unit currently employs around 2,000 people.

ContiTech is to close four manufacturing sites in Germany under a restructuring expected to impact 580 jobs, including: Bad Blankenburg, conveyor belts plant (185 jobs); Stolzenau,  produces cargo compartment covers for the automotive industry (110 jobs); Moers, special conveyor belts (47 jobs); Geithain/Frohburg, blow moulding tools (58 jobs); Hanover-Vahrenwald, production of passenger car air springs being relocated (126 jobs); Hamburg, tech centre and other activities being scaled back or relocated (53 jobs).

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions (TSS) has signed an agreement to acquire Aero-Plastics Inc, a US supplier of polymer parts for the aerospace industry, based in Renton, Washington… With 2024 sales of SEK150m (€13m).

BUSINESS

Zeon Corp. has raised its earnings forecast for its fiscal year ending 31 March, due in part to improved margins within its elastomers business. It now expects an operating profit of Yen26.5bn (€166m), up 13% versus an earlier forecast in October 2024 and 30% compared to the year before. Zeon also expects total sales to come in at Yen417bn, 9.1% above the prior-year level. For the three months to end of December 2024, Zeon’s elastomers division posted a 4% year-on-year increase in earnings to Yen2.9bn, on 29% higher sales of Yen58bn.

For 2024, Hankook posted a 32.7% year-on-year increase in operating profit to around €1,195m on global consolidated sales 5.3% higher at €6,381m. In Q4, however, while Q4 sales increased 7.7% year-on-year to €1,700m, operating profit fell 12.8% to €318m. For full-year 2024, Hankook increased its sales-share of 18” and larger passenger car tires by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year to reach 46.5%. For 2025, Hankook aims toachieve: “year-on-year sales growth"; an operating-profit margin at around 10%; sales-share of larger car tires of over 50%.

Nokian Tyres reported earnings (EBITDA) 7.6% higher year-on-year at €185m on 2024 sales of just under €1.3bn, about 10% above the 2023 level. Operating profit for the year, however, fell from €32m in 2023, to €1.8m, with €70m “booked as non-IFRS exclusions.”

Synthomer plc expects full-year sales are expected to come in at around £2.0 billion, up from £1,940.6 million, while earnings (EBITDA) are set to range between £145-148 million, substantially exceeding the prior-year £137.4 million.

Contec SA is to supply tire pyrolysis oil (TPO) to Orion for the production of ‘circular’ carbon black for tire and rubber goods. The “long-term” agreement with Warsaw-based Contec will help Orion to diversify its sources of TPO.

Sumitomo Rubber Industries and Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. signed an agreement to collaborate on producing carbon black from waste rubber.

MARKETS

ETRMA’s latest report on the European replacement tire market shows that in 2024 (vs 2023): consumer tire volumes rose 5% to 223.2m units overall; a 16% increase in demand for all-season tires; demand for winter tires up 7%; summer tire volumes down 2%; truck & bus tire demand down 1% at 11.3m units; shipments of farm tires up 5% to 716k units; two-wheeler tires demand up 4% to 9.0m units. (See also chart above)

Assessing the potential impact of US tariffs, Cabot Corp. president and CEO Sean Keohane the carbon black major imported “a very limited amount of volume” from China into the US but if production in China is reduced for tires or other exported products, then demand could be affected. For Mexico, he expected “minimal direct impact”, as it sole rubber blacks unit there primarily sells into the Mexican market. For Canada, where Cabot operates two plants, sales to the US represents about 10% of the carbon black we sell in N America.”

Noting the impact of EU sanctions on Russian carbon black on its business, PCBL Chemical Ltd (formerly Phillips Carbon Black Ltd) said India imports around 100ktpa of carbon black, of which 30% is supplied by Russian manufacturers.

SHARE PRICES

Leading tire manufacturers’ share-price trends

Leading rubber product manufacturers’ share-price trends

MATERIALS

Natural rubber futures have gained across all major exchanges, amid shortened trading days in China and Singapore due to the lunar new year holidays. Both short covering and light buying interest supported the OSE and SICOM markets in Japan and Singapore, reported Japan Exchange Group (JPX) 3 Feb. In Osaka, OSE July-2025 rubber contract closed 2.8% higher compared to the week before. In Singapore, SICOM's active April-2025 contract gained 0.8% week-on-week, in generally quiet trading.

Selected rubber futures price trends on major trading exchanges

(ERJ calculation for selected futures)

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