Rubber & tire industry in numbers

SHARE PRICES

Selected tire manufacturers’ share-price trends

 Selected rubber product manufacturers’ share-price trends

MATERIALS

Natural rubber 

NR futures closed the second trading week of December higher across major exchanges.  In Osaka, Japan, "short-covering activity was evident" in RSS3 contracts, lifting May-2026 contracts 1.7% week-on-week, reported JPX. In China, fresh buying interest emerged in TSR20 contracts on both the SHFE and the INE exchanges. Official SHFE rubber inventories “increased sharply” during the week, rising by 12,324 tonnes to 105,542 tonnes, JPX said. The stock-build, it added, offset much of the seasonal drawdown recorded in mid-November. Trading volumes are expected to ease as yearend holidays approach, with market sentiment “steady but cautious.”

Selected rubber futures price trends on major trading exchanges

(ERJ calculation for selected futures pricing, as tracked by JPX) 

BUSINESS 

Top tire makers: Results for the first three quarters of 2025

*Sales figure based on ratio of group sales to tire-related sales as applied in the Global Tire Report 2025 / ** Goodyear earnings figure for both tire and non-tire businesses / ***Hankook: Around KRW86.2bn in PPA-related depreciation and amortisation recognised in Q1-3/25 following acquisition of Hanon Systems. // Earnings: ¹(Segment) operating income; ²EBITDA // Euro figures based on average year-to-date exchange rates: Yen = 0.00597; $ = 0.8899; KRW = 0.00629.

PROJECTS

Recently reported capacity additions & expansions

MARKETS & M&A

Ineos has called for urgent political action to halt the “catastrophic decline” in the EU chemical industry “before there is nothing left” (see Plant closures). In November, Ineos filed 10 major anti-dumping cases citing “significant inflows of carbon heavy imports into the continent from China.” Up 8.3% in H1/25, these “carbon-intensive” imports are subject to a fraction of EU energy costs and no carbon price at all, it stated.

Shandong Dawn Polymer Co. Ltd is to acquire an 80% stake in Ningbo SK Synthetic Rubber Co., for Yuan516m (€62m) from SK Group. Located in the Ningbo Chemical and Industrial Zone, Zhejiang, China, Ningbo SK is an 80/20 JV between SK Geo Centric and China state-owned Ningbo Chemical Development. The plant includes capacity to produce 50ktpa of EPDM rubber.

Last year, 533kt of scrap tires were generated in Germany, with almost 70% remaining within the circular economy through reuse, retreading and material recycling. At almost 200kt, more than 66% are processed into granules and rubber powder, added WDK, stating that: “A risk-based approach in the evaluation of the chemical ingredients of these recycled products is urgently needed to ensure their market success.”

German chemicals industry body the VCI reported that European chemicals production declined by 2.5%, while capacity utilisation stood at around 70% in 2025. Employment in the chemicals & pharma sector fell by 0.5% this year, equivalent to around 2,400 jobs. VCI expects overall production in the chemicals output to fall by a further 1% and revenues by around 2% year-on-year in 2026.

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