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Rubber is an essential raw material for car tires, personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves, and many other everyday products. Anytime you go anywhere you are using rubber. Today, supply chain disruptions have plunged the rubber industry into free fall.
“We could be on the cusp of a rubber apocalypse,” Ohio State University professor Katrina Cornish told CNBC.
Rubber producers face climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, a destructive fungus and the fight for shipping containers.
The world economy remains dependent on Asia for 90% of the supply of natural rubber. For example, the United States imported $ 140 million worth of natural rubber in March 2021 alone, according to census data.
The global natural rubber market was valued at nearly $ 40 billion in 2020, and the demand for rubber is expected to increase. An analysis predicts that the natural rubber market could be worth nearly $ 68.5 billion by 2026. One of the reasons for the increase in demand? Car tires.
“We are using more and more tires,” Stefano Savi, director of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber, told CNBC. “The mileage we are going to travel as a world population is sure to increase, and that is why the demand for rubber really continues to increase.”
Watch the video above to learn more about why the natural rubber supply chain is facing challenges, what natural rubber means to economies around the world, and what rubber innovations might look like. in the future.
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