Rubber Goods Industries

Macromolecular material which has, or can be given, properties of: 
Returning rapidly (at room temperature) to the approximate shape from which it has been substantially distorted by a weak stress, and

Not being easily remolded to a permanent shape by the application of heat and moderate pressure.
VARIETIES OF RUBBER

Natural latex - This is a white fluid obtained from the rubber tree. It contains small particles of rubber dispersed in an aqueous medium. The aqueous medium also contains plant proteins which are thought to be responsible for triggering the allergy.

Natural rubber - This includes all material made from or containing latex. Natural rubber is made by two processes, the natural rubber latex process (NRL) and the dry natural rubber process (DNR)

DNR process

This involves compressing the rubber at a high temperature and pressure. The plant proteins, responsible for the allergy, are denatured at these temperatures and pressures and therefore pose a lower risk than rubber made by the NRL process.

NRL process

This involves the use of natural latex in a concentrated colloidal suspension. This type of latex contains a much greater proportion of plant proteins than latex produced by the DNR process. Most immediate type reactions result from exposure to NRL products.

Standard Grades

Natural rubber is produced primarily in three countries:

Thailand
Malaysia
Indonesia

The following are the specifications scheme for each country:

STR : Standard Thai Rubber
SMR: Standard Malaysia Rubber
SIR : Standard Indonesia Rubber

Present Status in India

With around 6000 unit comprising 30 large scale, 300 medium scale and around 5600 SSI/tiny sector nits, manufacturing 35000 rubber products, employing 400 hundred thousand people, including around 22000 technically qualified support personnel, with a turnover of Rs.200 billions and contributing Rs.40 billions to the National Exchequer through taxes, duties and other levies, the Indian Rubber Industry plays a core sector role in the Indian national economy. The industry has certain distinct advantages like:

An extensive plantation sector
Indigenous availability of the basic raw materials, like natural rubber, synthetic rubber, reclaim rubber, carbon black, rubber chemicals, fatty acids, rayon and nylon yarn and so on.
A large domestic market.
Availability of cheap labor.
Training facility in various technical institutes.
On-going economic reforms.
Improved living standards of the masses.

India and the world

India is the third largest producer, fourth largest consumer of natural rubber and fifth largest consumer of natural rubber and synthetic rubber together in the world. Besides, India is the world's largest manufacturer of reclaim rubber. In fact, India and China are the only two countries in the world which have the capacity to consume the entire indigenous production of natural rubber and thereby obviate the compulsion and over dependence on exports of surplus quantity of natural rubber. The plantation sector with an estimated production of over 630 hundred thousand tones of natural rubber and a projected production of more than one million tones in near future, helps radical and rapid growth of the Indian rubber industry. The growth prospect is further enlarged by a boom in the vehicle industry, improved living standards of the masses and rapid over-all industrialization.

The per capita consumption of rubber in India only 800 grams against 12 to 14 kilos in Japan, USA and Europe. This envisages tremendous growth prospects of the industry in the years to come as India is far from attaining any saturation level, so far as consumption of rubber products is concerned.

Range of Products

The wide range of rubber products manufactured by the Indian rubber industry are -

Auto tyres
Auto tubes
automobile parts
footwear
belting
hoses
cycle tyres and tubes
cables and wires
camelback
battery boxes
latex products
pharmaceutical goods

The products manufactured also cover hi-tech industrial items.

The important areas which the industry caters to include are -
All the three wings of defence

Civil
Aviation
Aeronautics
Railways and agriculture transport
Textile engineering industries
Pharmaceuticals, mines, steel plants

Main Sectors

The rubber industry in India is basically divided in two sectors - tyre and non-tyre sector produces all types of auto tyres, conventional as well as radial tyres and exports to advance countries like USA.

The non-tyre sector comprises the medium scale, small scale and tiny units. It produces high technology and sophisticated industrial products. The small scale sector accounts for over 50% of production of rubber goods in the non-tyre sector. Going by share of rubber consumption, automotive tyre sector is the single largest sector accounting for about 50% consumption of all kinds of rubbers, followed by bicycles tyres and tubes 15% footwear12%, belts and hoses 6%, camelback and latex products 7%. All other remaining rubber products put together account for 10%.

Future Scope 

With the saturation in rubber consumption in Western countries and the shift in consumption of rubber to the Asia Pacific region, the focal points for this decade for development will be India. The industry is expected to grow at over 8% p.a. in the coming decade. Taking into account the above prospects, the industry envisaged annual growth rate of 8% and the per capita consumption of rubber at 0.8 kg. against 14 kg. There exists tremendous scope for expansion and development in coming years provided basic raw materials, particularly natural and synthetic rubber, are made available in adequate quantity and at reasonable prices. Consumption of 1.25 million tones of rubber with per capita usage of 1.2 kgs. And exports of rubber goods worth Rs.30 billion seems possible by the year 2005.

Asia is now the focus of growth in the rubber industry. All the world's natural rubber is grown in this region namely Thailand, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka etc.

The fastest growing economies in the world are here namely China, India, Korea, Malaysia etc,

World's powerhouse Japan is here. The largest investments in new synthetic rubber plants are coming up in Asia. Production of all auto majors is shifting to Asia, even as consumption-wise Asia's share in the worlds auto market grows.

Highest growth and availability of technically trained manpower for the rubber industry is in this region. While EU and US have now become a saturated market for the rubber industry all the action is shifting to Asia.

Low demand growth for the growth for end products, high labour costs, very strict environmental norms, non availability of NR in the backyard are all propelling the worlds major input suppliers for the rubber industry to look towards Asia.

World Rubber Production

In 1991 Thailand replaced Malaysia as the top producer and exporter of natural rubber products. This has been the result of a re-planting program. A majority of Thailand's rubber plantations are located in the southern part of the country.
Thailand leads the rubber producing countries in research and development of natural rubber. This makes Thai natural rubber is the most dependable and consistent.

A majority of rubber products are exported in their raw form such as Technically Specified Rubbers: STR, RSS, Skim Block, ADS, Crape, and Concentrate Latex.

Exports account for 90 percent of natural rubber production. The remaining 10 percent is utilized by local manufactures.

Of the 10 percent of total production that is utilized domestically, 55 percent of this amount is processes as value-added goods. Major manufactured rubber product are tires and inner tubes for automotive