TM TTE exhibition and conference preview ›› Seals: Proliferation and electrifi cation ›› ERJ Testing times for silicone ›› EUROPEAN RUBBER JOURNAL•Reporting on the global rubber industry since 1884 rubber industry Year of sustainability Driver for growth of tire & rubber industry in 2019 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 www.european-rubber-journal.com a crain publication 0001 ERJ Cover.indd 1 11/01/2019 13:37 Untitled-2 1 09/01/2019 08:32 CONTENTS ERJTM 9 EUROPEAN RUBBER JOURNAL•Reporting on the global rubber industry since 1884 International Newsfront 4 Comment: When the going gets tough 6 A comprehensive report on all the latest news about the rubber industry from around the world Features 13 16 Tire Tech Expo review: Expo listing and event highlights 23 Step onto the platform: VMI exec urges tire fi rms to rethink investment approach 24 Automotive seals: Suppliers respond to emerging industry trends 27 Seals Q&A: Interview with Trelleborg Sealing Solutions president 24 Photo: 28 Testing times for silicones as regulations, costs and shortages impact the market Cover image source: Continental 31 Sustainability report: Breakthrough in NR platform dispute; Rejig in rCB companies; Road and pitch; Dandelion rubber project 36 Business focus: Tire share prices, partnership call Regulars 38 Industry data page 32 39 Postscript: Year of the ‘S’ word as sustainability efforts gather momentum in industry SPECIAL REPORT Sustainability: Developments in tire industry platform, recycled carbon black, new applications and dandelion rubber 39 January/February 2019 • EUROPEAN RUBBER JOURNAL 3 0003 ERJ Contents.indd 1 11/01/2019 14:59 COMMENT ERJTM EUROPEAN RUBBER JOURNAL•Reporting on the global rubber industry since 1884 Our 135th year Vol. 201, No.1 – ISSN 0266-151 Published bi-monthly by Crain Communications Ltd, a division of Crain Communications Inc. EUROPEAN RUBBER JOURNAL Crain Communications Ltd Registered Office: 100 New Bridge Street, London EC4V 6JA United Kingdom. Registered No. 1576350 England. V.A.T. No. GB 577 6905 84 Website www.european-rubber-journal.com EDITORIAL Vice President / Group Publisher Brennan Lafferty Tel: +1 313 446 6768 Email: [email protected] Vice President / Publisher David Zielasko Tel: +1 330 865 6131 Email: [email protected] When the going Editor Patrick Raleigh Tel: +44 (0)7714 137182 Email: [email protected] Reporter Shahrzad Pourriahi Tel: +43 (0)664 8707581 Email: [email protected] gets tough Art Director John Woodhatch Tel: +44 (0)7778 964300 Email: [email protected] Media Services Manager ERJ editor Patrick Raleigh reflects on current industry trends Patrick Alfes Tel: +1 313 446 0387 Email: [email protected] Chairman Keith E Crain ost economic indi- could prove wildly optimistic, Vice Chairman Mary Kay Crain cators and analysts some European automotive in- President K C Crain Senior Executive Vice President Chris Crain suggest that 2019 dustry analysts suggest. This is USA bureau especially if Brexit really starts Bruce Meyer Tel: +1 330 865 6124 will be much more Fax: +1 330 836 1005 Email: [email protected] challenging than to bite. ADVERTISING lastM year for businesses in the On the other hand, some Group Sales Manager Patrick Cannon Tel: +1 313 446 1625 European tire & rubber sector. of the main factors impacting Email: [email protected] A slowdown in the Chi- the market – among them the Sales Manager Pete McNeil, 1725 Merriman Road, Suite 300 nese economy and faltering US-China trade war, Brexit and Akron, Ohio 44313, USA Tel: +1 330 865 6109, Cell: +1 234 380 3031 growth in Western coun- emissions-test bottlenecks in the Email: [email protected] tries are already starting EU – could be quickly resolved or European sales agent Arthur Schavemaker, Spoorstraat 21, 7471 BV Goor, to take a toll on sales and mitigated in the coming months. PO Box 130, 7470 AC Goor, The Netherlands employment in key mar- And, however sustained the Tel: +31 (0) 547 275005, Fax: +31 (0) 547 271831 Email: [email protected] kets, including the auto- economic issues are in 2019, an- Italian sales agent Roberto Gallino, Mediapoint & Communications srl, motive industry. other positive is that such com- Corte Lambruschini, Corso Buenos Aires 8, As ERJ went to press mercial pressures tend to drive V°piano-interno 9, 16129 Genova, Italy. Tel: +39 010 570 4948, Fax: +39 010 553 0088. Jaguar Land Rover and up the pace of innovation and Email: [email protected] Ford announced thou- adoption of smarter, more effi- Taiwanese sales agent Erin King, Worldwide Services Co., 11F-2, No. 540, sands of job cuts in cient products and technologies. Wen Hsin Road, Section 1, Taichung, 408, Taiwan. Tel: +886 4 2325 1784, Fax: +886 4 2325 2967 Europe, while car sales So, while not particularly wel- Email: [email protected] in the region were re- come, this year’s changing and Chinese sales agent Leod Lee, Beijing Excelle Rubber Technology Co., Ltd, ported to have fallen uncertain market conditions Rm 2010, Bldg. C, ULO Park, Futongdong Street, by 8.5% in December. could eventually play out to the Wangjing, Chaoyang Dist., Beijing 100102, China. Tel: +86-10-84787236, Cell: +86 135 0122 6720 Last month, vehicle registra- benefit of the world’s most inno- Email: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS: tions in the key European mar- vative industrial companies. £20/E25.50 single copy; £98/E125. Subscription kets of Germany, France and the These, of course, include Eu- includes surface mail postage; air mail rates available on request. Four weeks’ notice required for change UK fell by 7%, 15% and 6% year- ropean tire and rubber product of address. Note: Subscription payments may be made using major credit cards. To use this facility on-year respectively. manufacturers as well as suppli- simply quote your card type and number and sign And looking ahead, even ers of materials and equipment the subscriptions form. Subscription cost includes personal access to on-line editions. Subscriptions forecast growth of 1% for 2019 to the sector. correspondence to: Circulation Dept, European Rubber Journal, Unit K, Venture House, Bone Lane, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 5SH, UK Subscriptions (abonnement) enquiries: Tel: +44 (0)1635 879382 Fax: +44 (0)1635 868594 Email: [email protected] Printed by: Blackmore, Shaftesbury, Dorset, UK © 2019 Crain Communications Ltd. A member of GLOBAL POLYMER GROUP No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of Audited by the publisher. All rights reserved. Average net circulation per issue for the period January 2017 to December 2017: 7,244 copies 4 EUROPEAN RUBBER JOURNAL • January/February 2019 0004.indd 1 11/01/2019 15:00 Untitled-2 1 09/01/2019 08:33 SUPPLIER NEWS Green shoots start to appear in natural rubber markets Signs of life in NR trading centres despite concerns over China and the global economy LONDON: Natural rubber pric- NR supply has fired up buyers Exchange (SHFE) last week, es are starting to show signs of in Tokyo, where benchmark the most heavily traded rub- stability and even revival in the prices reached a two-month ber future RU1905 increased main trading centres of the Far high at the start of this year. to Yuan11,675 on 4 Jan – 1% East. Back month prices for RSS3 higher than two months ago. The fledgling recovery is be- on the Tocom exchange con- Elsewhere, average week- ing linked to talks among the tinued a steady climb, from ly prices for RSS4 in Kottay- main producer countries – In- aroundYen162/kg on 1 Nov to am, India were recorded at donesia, Malaysia, Thailand – reach levels as high as Yen181/ $178.38/100kg in early Jan- to take renewed steps to shore kg in early January. uary – 2.4% higher than two up prices. Back month contract pric- months ago. Also encouraging were As- es for the recently introduced Stability was more the or- sociation of Natural Rubber benchmark TSR20 grade in- der of the day in Kuala Lum- Producing Countries (ANRPC) creased 3.4% between 1 Nov pur, where SMR20 reached figures showing a 5.2% year- 2018 and 8 Jan to reach a value $132.55/100kg on 4 Jan, about on-year rise in global NR de- economy and inventory levels of Yen152/kg. level with the average week mand to 11.7 million tonnes in China. On the Shanghai Futures prices seen last November. for the first 10 months of “Commodities markets, 2018. such as oil and rubber markets, In its latest market review, is- have been volatile and bearish sued 24 Dec, ANRPC reported during October 2018,” AN- Rubber rising that NR production increased RPC secretary-general Nguyen New International Rubber NR demand rose 4.9% to 5.5% to 11.5 million tonnes Ngoc Bich said. Study Group data, based on 13.87m tonnes in 2018 and during the period, leading to In the ANRPC review, the IMF and other scenarios, fore- is set to increase further by a shortfall of 228,000 tonnes. rubber association’s leader casts that after a 3.2% rise 2.6%, to 14.23m tonnes in But the champagne – like linked the weakened market to 29.30m tonnes in 2018, 2019. SR demand rose 1.7% the many large stocks of NR – situation to international trade global rubber consumption to 15.43m tonnes in 2018 looks set to remain in storage tensions of the past six months. will increase 2.5% to 30.03m and, this year, is forecast to for some time to come, amid On the other hand, the tonnes this year. World rise 2.4% to 15.80m tonnes.