Synthetic rubber firms up capacity

The country's emergence as one of the leading consumers of rubber in the world has prompted domestic companies to expand capacities and international majors to increase exports.

Demand for synthetic rubber is seen rising on the back of growth in the automotive industry, especially in India and China. In 2006, world production of synthetic rubber was 12.4 million tonne and consumption was 12.45 million tonne.

The automobile sector is one of the largest users of synthetic rubber in tyres and components. Country's production of passenger cars and commercial vehicles in 2020 is expected to touch 32 million units from 15 million vehicles in 2004, with global automobile majors also eyeing India as a major market.

This would mean India's rubber consumption, both natural and synthetic, will double to 2 million tonne by 2020 from 1 million tonne now.

Global synthetic rubber manufacturers are also looking at India as a major market.

Japan's Zeon Corp, the world's leading maker of general-purpose rubbers, is targeting three-fold growth in sale of synthetic rubber to India by 2010. At present, Zeon exports 5,000 tonne of synthetic rubber to India every year.

"India is a major market for us, especially because of the growth of its automobile industry," Takeshi Yoshimi, general manager, international sales and marketing at Zeon, told NewsWire18 on the sidelines of India Rubber Expo 2007, held in Chennai last week.

Revertex Malaysia, another synthetic rubber manufacturer, plans to double nitrile rubber capacity to 80,000 by 2008 at one of its plants.

In India, companies like Sah Petroleums and Apar Industries are expanding their capacities to gain the rising demand for synthetic rubber. Sah Petroleums is expanding capacity of rubber process oil to 100,000 tonne per annum from the current 75,000-80,000 tonne, said Rohit Sanghani, senior vice-president, marketing and co-ordination of the Mumbai-based company.

Rubber processed oil is used in the manufacture of rubber goods and components for the automobile industry. Apar Industries is raising capacity of nitrile rubber and high styrene to 50,000 tonne in the next two years.

At present, Apar's combined capacity of these products, used by the automobile tyre and automotive industries, is 33,000 tonne.