Rubber & tire industry in numbers

PROJECTS

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) has approved the listing of Zhongce Rubber Group (ZC Rubber) during a recent listing review committee meeting. According to its latest IPO prospectus, submitted 7 Feb, ZC Rubber aims to issue no more than 8,744,8560 shares to raise Yuan4.85bn (€630m). ZC aims to invest the funds in five major tire projects: Yuan1.7bn for its ‘Chaoyang high-performance radial tire green 5G digital factory project’; Yuan850m in a 2.5m unit/yr truck tire production line project in Qingquan, currently undergoing a Yuan2bn expansion; Yuan600m for the ‘renovation and expansion’ of its Jiande’s Chunqiu plant to add a 2.5m units/yr all-steel truck tire production line; Yuan850m in a Zhongce Rubber (Tianjin) project to produce ‘high-end green engineering tires’; Yuan600m to add production capacity for 7m radial passenger car tires in Thailand.

M&A & Restructuring

Hexpol AB is acquiring an 80% stake in Kabkom – “the largest independent cable compounder in Turkey” –  for €54m. With an annual sales of €30m, the company operates a facility outside Izmir, where it employs 70 people.

German supplier of antivibration and damping systems GMT Gummi-Metall-Technik has divested its aerospace division to TriMas Corp., a Michigan-based manufacturer of engineered products.

Under its on-going restructuring plans, Bridgestone posted savings of Yen75bn in 2024, and expects another Yen30bn in cost reductions this year. 

Toyo Tire Corp. is to transfer a 86% equity interest in its in Toyo Tire Zhangjiagang (TTZ) tire making subsidiary in China to equity firm Liaoning Hengdasheng Investment (LHI). Established in 2010 to supply light vehicle tires, TTZ serves markets in China and other Asian countries: reporting sales of Yuan328m (€43m) and losses of Yuan5m in 2024.

German distributor Biesterfeld has acquired the distribution division of Singapore-based Tat Lee Engineering, a maker and supplier of seals and associated sealing products and distributor of lubricants and silicone materials – including products from DuPont and Dow Chemical.

London-based chemicals supplier Virdis Chemicals has acquired the rubber curatives and additives business of Manchester-based J. Allcock and Sons: adding curatives for FKM fluoroelastomers, plus carnauba wax and other compound ingredients to its portfolio.

Trelleborg Industrial Solutions is to acquire US-based pipe repair company NuFlow Technologies. Based in Escondido, California, and with manufacturing operations in Ajax, Ontario, the €16m turnover company offers repair solutions for lateral and building interior pipes for residential and commercial segments.

BUSINESS

Yokohama Rubber Co. has posted record sales and earnings for 2024: business profit up 35.6% year-on-year to Yen134bn on 11% higher sales of Yen1,100bn. YRC expects 2025 be another record year, with revenue projected to increase 11.4% to Yen1,220bn and earnings to grow 2.7% to Yen138.0bn. YRC’s ‘Tires’ business reported a 12% year-on-year sales increase to Yen980bn, while the non-tire multiple business saw a 3.3% increase in revenue to Yen105bn. Its passenger car and truck & bus tires business saw an 8% increase in sales to Yen690bn, while in the off-road tire segment, Yokohama Off-Highway Tires (YOHT) posted a 7.7% year-over-year increase in sales to Yen142bn and Yokohama-TWS a 44% rise to Yen149bn. Earnings within the overall Tires division grew 28% year-on-year to Yen127bn, reflecting a four-fold increase in Y-TWS earnings to Yen9bn. The multiple business also reported a 20% increase in earnings to Yen8.5bn.

For 2024, Bridgestone Corp. reported adjusted earnings (operating profit) up 1% year-on-year to Yen483bn (€3.0bn), on 3% higher sales of Yen4,400bn. For 2025, Bridgestone expects a 4% year-on-year increase in adjusted earnings to Yen505bn, on 2% lower sales of Yen4,300bn.

For 2025, Bridgestone aims to achieve Enliten OE fitments on 170 car models in 2025, up from 117 in 2024, and a sales ratio of 18”+ OE tires of over 70% in North America and Europe. In the replacement market, the goal is to achieve a sales ratio of above 45% for the premium tires.

Toyo Tire Corp. posted record-high sales of Yen565bn (€3.6bn) for 2024, up 2.3% year-on-year. Operating income increased 22% year-on-year to Yen94bn. The group’s ‘tire business unit’ increased operating income by 20% year-on-year to Yen92bn, on sales 2.8% higher at Yen520bn. Toyo's ‘automotive parts' business unit posted a 4% decline in sales to Yen 45.5bn, but saw operating income rise from Yen178m in 2023, to Yen1.9bn in 2024.

For 2024, Orion SA reported adjusted EBITDA for rubber carbon blacks down 12.4% year-on-year to $194m, on 4.1% lower sales of $1.2 billion. Volumes fell 3.1% to 690kt.

Tosoh Corp.’s petrochemical division has increased revenue for Q1-3 of its fiscal year 2025, ending 31 March, due in part to higher chloroprene rubber volumes. For the nine-month period to end of December, the division reported a 40% increase in operating income to Yen12.4bn (€78m), on 11% higher sales of Yen159.1bn (€996m).

Japan's Fukoku Rubber has revised down its earnings and sales forecasts for fiscal 2024 (ending 31 March), due in part to the closure of its Chinese antivibration parts subsidiary. The components maker now expects sales to come in at Yen89bn (€556m), down 4.3% from an earlier estimate announced in May last year. Operating profit is set to come in at Yen4.6bn, down 4.2% on the earlier forecast.

Switzerland’s chemical industry contributed to a 14.6% year-on-year increase in exports in 2024, with an export volume of CHF149.08bn (€147.90bn). The country’s Scienceindustries business association’s foreign trade statistics report stated the industry helped account for more than 52% of total national exports last year. This, it noted, was despite a faltering economy.

Zeon Corp. and Yokohama Rubber Co. joined forces to establish a 'bench facility' to demonstrate technology for the “highly efficient” production of butadiene from sustainable ethanol.

SHARE PRICES

Leading tire manufacturers’ share-price trends

Leading rubber product manufacturers’ share-price trends

MATERIALS

Chinese stock market rally, inflation concerns and trade barriers drove natural rubber (NR) futures in the second trading week of February.

The trading week ended 14 Feb saw NR futures strengthen across all rubber exchanges, driven by strong speculative and commodity hedge fund buying on China’s SHFE and INE markets.

It is estimated that commodity funds purchased approximately 700kt of rubber futures across Chinese exchanges, reported Japan Exchange Group (JPX) 17 Feb.

“Optimism in Chinese stock markets fuelled the rally, alongside concerns over higher global inflation and the impact of the 10% tariffs imposed by the US,” said JPX.

Selected rubber futures price trends on major trading exchanges

(ERJ calculation for selected futures)

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