Rubber industry environment ‘slowly becoming buyer’s market’

London – Following almost a year of steep rises in raw materials prices and tight supply driven by post-Covid pent-up demand, the rubber industry market is slowly noramlising.

“There are still pockets of strong businesses, but the market is generally slowing down,” a leading industry expert told ERJ anonymously.

According to the source, prices of raw materials are overall plateauing, potentially due to fears of a recession caused by market turbulence.

Furthermore, the analyst said, consumers of raw materials are starting to realise that they need to come out of “the hording behaviour, or risk getting stuck with expensive materials.”

Another factor helping the market is improved availability of materials and consumers finding the chance to be selective about where to buy.

“The market is slowly becoming a buyer’s market again,” the source added.

While a large part of the industry will see improvements in terms of pricing and availability, the industry expert said prices for oils and plasticisers are still going up, potentially normalising in the third quarter.

This, said the expert, is because the prices for those materials are always “a bit late” to react.