Q&A: Teijin Aramid expects growth in tire business

As part of our coverage of major suppliers, ERJ asked Sjaak Bensink, business manager tires, mechanical rubber goods, umbilicals & flowlines at Teijin Aramid about current trends in the tire cord industry:

ERJ: What is the approximate value of the global tire cord market this year, and what are your estimates for growth (CAGR) for 2016 and 2017?

SB: Our estimation of the global aramid yarn market for tires is more than $100 million and grows with approximately 6% per year.

ERJ: How are your main product markets are performing this year and the prospects for the year ahead?

SB: Teijin Aramid has a dominant global market share in tires and expects growth figures of at least the CAGR.

ERJ: What are the main drivers for growth in the market at present?

SB: The main drivers for aramid growth are improved performance and increased demand for sustainable solutions.

Performance improvement is focused on:

a) better flat-spotting behaviour compared to standard nylon in the cap-ply;

b) better retention of the shape of the tire at high speeds due to the high stiffness of the aramid compared to nylon in the cap-ply,

c) better long term retention of the tire dimensions due to the better dimensional stability of aramid compared to polyester in the carcass.

An increased demand for sustainable solutions in automotive industry, enforced by various regional regulatory requirements, drives the demand for low weight aramid solutions in various parts of the car amongst which passenger car tires.

The high strength of the aramid yarn allows to replace multiple layers of textile or steel reinforcement by less layers of aramid. This effectively reduces the amount of rubber in the tires and lowers the weight, which contributes to a reduction of carbon emissions and improves the tires’ environmental footprint.

This has already proven to be successful in the market by an increasing demand for aramid in the cap-ply to reduce the traditional two layers of nylon to only one layer of aramid, it is now also gaining global interest and market share is developing to replace rayon or polyester in the carcass.

ERJ: And, what would you say are the main barriers to market growth?

SB: The barriers for growth of aramid are cost and technology. The relatively high cost of the yarn currently limits the use of aramid to mainly high performance tire segments, such as (U)HP PCR, aircraft and racing tires.

But as demand grows and global capacity increases the projection towards the future is higher volume against lower cost. The technological barriers are in the different behaviour of aramid compared to traditional nylon or polyester. Where the latter yarns are quite forgiving in small deviations in design and process technology, building a tire with aramid requires much more process control and R&D effort to get the unique properties of aramid to work.

Many tire companies face difficulties when using their traditional design methods and factory equipment to develop an aramid containing tire. Teijin Aramid provides onsite support to these companies to help them be more successful and reduce their time-to-market.

ERJ: Please give details of any expansion project or other significant investment by the company either last year, this year or in 2017.

SB: Teijin Aramid is committed to expand capacity to grow with the market demand.

ERJ: Which tire cord technologies does your company see as key to growth in the market over the next few years?

SB: Where full aramid cords may be rather stiff, solutions can often be found in hybrid cords which are a combination of aramid and another yarn. In the cap-ply hybrid cords of aramid and nylon are the leading technology.

ERJ: Any other points?

SB: Teijin Aramid has developed a Customer Benefit Model (CBM) to calculate the reduction of CO2 and particulate matter emissions when substituting traditional reinforcement with aramid. The novelty of the CBM is to look further than just making an environmental comparison between reinforcement yarns and to evaluate the entire life cycle of the tire: from production to end-of-life.

Aramid tires turn out to win particularly in the use phase of a tire, which can be nicely calculated and shown in graphics in the CBM. Teijin has been honoured with the EcoBalance Award for Best Business Practices at the 12th Biennial International Conference on EcoBalance in Kyoto in October 2016 for this model.