Rubber Journal Asia Tyres
Green tyres to roll out sustainability and efficiency For years, the latex harvests in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, which account for more than 90% of global production, have not come close to meeting t h e i n c r e a s i n g demand even though rubber planters increased supply by 9% last year. Plus, the projects that are being undertaken in the US and Europe on natural rubber alternatives like guayule and Lanxess’s Ron the Russian dandelion may Commander’s prediction take years to fully materialise. of higher global rubber According to Pongsak Kerdvongbundit, President of consumption is supported the Thai Rubber Association, bad by IRSG’s figures of an weather conditions and the increase of 4% in 2011. lack of skilled workers have Of the increase, synthetic hampered tree-tapping across rubber consumption Asian plantations. In Thailand, went up by 6%, said about 30% of output this year Commander will be wasted due to planting on the wrong type of land. “Global production will lag behind soaring demand in the next few years,” he predicted at the summit. Threatened by less plantation areas and low yields, the National Association of Smallholders President Aliasak Ambia said that Malaysia’s rubber plantations shrunk from 17 trillion sq m to 10 trillion sq m, which the government is trying to maintain. This is certainly a challenge for the tyre industry since natural rubber accounts for as much as 40% of a tyre’s weight, said Michel Rollier, former Managing Chairman of French tyre maker Michelin. “Replacement of natural rubber by synthetic rubber is limited and slow because of its unique properties.” Another major grower of rubber, India has reached a plateau when it comes to planting. “Planters should leverage on genetic modification and biotechnology to produce high-yielding varieties that help maximise returns,” said India Rubber Board chairperson Sheela Thomas. Meanwhile, Fahnemann said that reviving natural rubber’s glory days would also call for a series of actions that include banning illegal clearing and introducing a certification system that would assess the whole value chain from tree planning, tapping and collecting latex to the endproduct.
At this year’s World Rubber Summit, which was hosted by the International Rubber Study Group and held from 23 to 24 May in Singapore, it was noted that tyre manufacturers are continuing to develop and improve tyres to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions, says Lyn Cacha in this report.
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ore vehicles are expected on the roads this year, especially in China, Brazil and India. “About 900 million cars will need tyres,” said Thomas Fahnemann, CEO of Semperit, an Austrian company that makes industrial hoses as well as gloves. He also said this requirement will definitely boost the natural and synthetic rubber sectors. With this and the European Union’s tyre labelling system, which will become effective this year, the demand for green tyres will certainly be increased. The labelling of tyre performance comes as no surprise as tyres contribute about 30% of a passenger car’s fuel consumption and 24% of carbon dioxide emissions, according to speciality chemicals firm Lanxess that supplies its synthetic rubber to major tyre makers. Meanwhile, Jens Barvencik, Group Purchasing Exterior Manager at vehicle maker Volkswagen, observed that more buyers are choosing bigger tyres. “The preference towards high-performance tyres instead of the standard has also boosted demand for tyres in the automotive replacement market,” he added. Pressing issues in natural rubber supply espite the good news, some industry leaders pointed out the challenges this growth poses. The world market will consume 25 million tonnes/ year of rubber and 60% of it will come from Asia, forecasted Magnus Bocker, CEO of the Singapore Exchange. “How will rubber suppliers be able to facilitate this?” he asked during his presentation at the World Rubber Summit. As natural rubber is indispensable to many industries, including the tyre industry, it is not possible to simply replace it with a synthetic variant.
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Rubber Journal Asia Tyres With this assistance, Cambodia has increased the number of approved agricultural projects. P lus, its potential for rubber cultivation, coupled with demand led to significant increase in foreign investments. Last year, it approved projects worth US$674 million. Aside from doing research, Bridgestone, together with the Agriculture and Technology department of Tokyo University and Kyushu University, has spent the last two years developing a preventive solution for white root disease, which is a leading cause of the death of rubber trees. The result is a simple diagnostic technique that uses infrared technology.
Building a sustainable rubber economy s though the shortage of natural rubber is not enough, the development of new tyre technologies that will contribute to the realisation of a sustainable society is another pressing issue, as emphasised by Shoshi Arakawa, Japanese tyre maker Bridgestone’s Board Chairman. He said that the group sees the potential to Bridgestone’s Shoshi significantly lessen the impact Arakawa says part of on the environment by ensuring the firm’s long-term that both ends of the spectrum – environmental goals customers and rubber producers – are kept satisfied. And then towards 2050 is to only can a truly sustainable develop synthetic rubber, economy be realised. carbon black and rubber Arakawa said that the firm’s compounding agents concept of a 100% sustainable that can be created from tyre encompasses major areas biomass materials such as improved vehicle efficiency (carbon emission reduction) safety, enhanced reuse, reduction and recyclability (through retread, half weight and runflat technologies), and resource diversification and renewability. In terms of the latter, Bridgestone shared how it has leveraged its technical capabilities, as well as diversified and expanded the range of renewable resources it uses in the production of tyres. Further, it has also diversified the regions in which it produces natural rubber and expanded the range of plant fibres it uses in its tyres. Collaboration and cooperation with smallholders is important, said Arakawa. He presented how the company has helped contribute to the livelihoods and preservation of biodiversity through activities that include donating high-yielding clones, providing training for proper tapping and improving postharvesting methods. Last year, the firm conducted a research project on natural rubber with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology to develop methods to increase the production of natural rubber in Indonesia, the world’s second largest producer of the polymer. Cambodia, another potential rubber-producing country, also constructed and strengthened its qualifying certification system through the help of Bridgestone, the Cambodia Rubber Research Institute and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Overseas Development Cooperation and Rubber Manufacturers Association.
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A brighter future for synthetic rubber rea shortage and unskilled labour in the natural rubber industry, combined with climate change issues, raises a complex and somewhat speculative question as to the future of synthetic rubber – can it meet the rising demand? Taking on the affirmative, Germany-based Lanxess predicts a promising future for the synthetic rubber industry driven mainly by global megatrends of green mobility and rapid urbanisation. Ron Commander, Global Head for the Butyl Rubber Business Unit, shared Lanxess’s plans to ramp up its global production capacity, including an overview of the company’s two upcoming facilities in Singapore for butyl rubber and neodymium polybutadiene that will come on stream in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Commander also shared the company’s solutions and technologies for sustainable synthetic rubber production. “We’ve made investments of about SG$34 million in the development of a biobased isobutene. We have developed a dehydration process that converts corn-based isobutanol to isobutene.” Commander added that this rubber is of the highest quality and meets the industry’s entire specifications. On an industrial level, Lanxess has embarked on a project to transform its Sarnia facility in Canada to use biobased raw materials, which it expects to account for 50% of synthetic rubber production. “At our plant in Brazil, we are beginning to produce EPDM rubber made from ethylene derived from sugar cane,” said Commander. It will be manufacturing 10,000 tonnes of biobased rubber. At the summit, Commander concluded that in the future, synthetic rubber will become even more important than it is now. The reason is that the world is facing an energy crisis – fossil fuels are increasingly difficult to exploit and global warming is calling for alternative sources.
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