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The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) released the Natural Rubber Trends, May 2021. In the report, ANRPC says the world has changed after the pandemic happened. Most countries are still battling with Covid-19 and its mutation variants, millions of lives taken by the pandemic and reshuffled the ordinance of people and economy under a new norm of standard operation procedures during this pandemic era.

Pyrolysis is a thermochemical pathway to treat vulcanized rubber for the recovery of valuable products. It involves the decomposition of the rubber at high temperatures (400 – 900°C) in the absence of an oxygen atmosphere. The main products of pyrolysis are a solid fraction, usually raw carbon black (according to ASTM D8178); a liquid fraction comprised of light oil, heavy oil, and tar; and a gas fraction. [Ramirez-Canon et. al., 2018]

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) releases Natural Rubber Trends for April 2021. According to ANRPC, the world production of natural rubber (NR) marked at 903,000 tons, while the world demand of NR recorded at 1.129 million tons during April 2021 on a year-to-year basis. Despite the favorable fundamental in NR industry, the price of futures and physical markets were relatively volatile compared to last month and posted a “V” trend. The alarming worries from the infectivity rates of Covid-19 around the world, several countries have imposed different level of lockdown to fight with the pandemic. This may result to delay in resuming the economic activities completely for full recovery due to health concerns. Moreover, other uncertainties may arise from geopolitical tensions, trade war and other pressing issues, as commodity market is relatively sensitive to the global development, ANRPC says.

This article is a review by Claus Lamer, a Co-Founder at Carbon Recovery GmbH. Weibold’s Academy article series discusses periodically the practical developments and scientific research findings in the end-of-life tire (ELT) recycling and pyrolysis industry. One of the goals is to give entrepreneurs in this industry, project initiators, investors and also the public, a better insight into a rapidly growing circular economy. At the same time, this article series should also be a stimulus for discussion.

ANRPC pinpoints that despite the physical natural rubber markets posted a downward trend in price for the month of March 2021, the average prices of rubber have gained further from February 2021 with positive growth ranges 21.4% in STR-20 for Bangkok, 4.1% in SMR-20 for Kuala Lumpur, 3.2% in RSS-3 for Bangkok and 6.7% in RSS-4 for Kottayam market.

Michelin – one of the world's leading tire manufacturers – says in its press release from February 23, 2021 that it is committed to making automotive tires 100% sustainable by 2050. This is an ambitious but realistic target for the Group, which positions itself as a leader in sustainable mobility. Appearances can be deceiving, the company says. This adage definitely applies to Michelin’s tires, which are high-technology products made of more than 200 components. They’re much more complex than they appear, which means that ensuring that all the tire’s components are sustainable presents a significant challenge.

A Dutch investment portal “Invest in Holland” says that a Canada-based company Tyromer is now building a pilot factory in Arnhem to bring its circular rubber products to the European market. Specializing in the devulcanization of rubber from scrap tires, Tyromer will fine-tune and exhibit its recycling technology at its new Dutch facility in order to sell the process to third parties. The company is one of the first in the Netherlands to give this hard-to-process residual product a high-quality new life, making it a valuable addition to the Dutch circular economy.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) releases its monthly publication, Natural Rubber Trends January 2021, available on its website. ANRPC says the outlook for world production of natural rubber (NR) is estimated to decline by 7.7%, year-on-year, to 12.782 million tons for 2020. The improved outlook for 2020 compared to the previous outlook published in last issue, is resulted from a better-than-expected production estimated from Thailand, India and Cambodia during the year. While the world demand for NR clocked at 12.827 million tons during 2020, contracted at 6.9%, year-on-year.

e-RubberCon is an international conference organized by the French Association of Rubber and Polymer Engineers (AFICEP) under the auspices of the International Rubber Conference Organization (IRCO) which AFICEP is a member of. As its name suggests, the conference is devoted to problems of rubber industry, including rubber and tire recycling, as this year its main motive is “Environment and Recycling: A Strategic Challenge for Rubber Materials.” This year, Robert Weibold – a tire recycling and pyrolysis expert from Vienna, Austria – speaks at e-RubberCon about “Challenges, trends and opportunities for end-of-life tires from a French perspective”. If you would like to connect with Robert Weibold, please send your inquiry at sales@weibold.com.