Over 5,000 members of the rubber industry from 109 countries attended World Rubber Week March 24 to 26, according to show organizers SingEx Exhibitions.
World Rubber Week consists of the World Rubber Summit, Tyrexpo Asia and Rubber Exchange Forum and is held at the Singapore Expo center in Changi, Singapore.
During the show, the International Rubber Study Group updated show attendees with its world total rubber demand forecast for 2015 and 2016.
According to the International Rubber Study Group, world total rubber demand is forecast to increase at 1.8% and 4.1% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The global demand for natural rubber is expected to increase by 3.1% in 2015, according to the research firm, and by 4.4% in 2016. World synthetic rubber demand is expected to increase to 16.8 million metric tons in 2015 and rise to 17.5 million metric tons in 2016, the firm said.
Goodyear CEO Richard Kramer also attended the expo, discussing the newest generation of consumers, Millennials, and how they will change the tire industry landscape.
“They have the leverage, and are buying what they want, when they want, and how they want,” Kramer said. “Millennial consumers are not going to adapt to us and the way we’ve sold tires for the past 100 years. We have to become a fast moving, consumer-driven, technology-savvy industry. We have to do more than sell tires. We have to sell a convenient and frictionless experience with our product and make the tire buying process easier.”
The show focused on Asia as a key for the tire industry. According to show organizers, out of the world’s top 75 global tiremakers, 49 are from Asia. Show organizers also cited the strong growth of vehicles in Asia – specifically China – as a reason for increased rubber demand in Asia.
“There are exciting new developments in the Asian rubber market today, including the potential development of Singapore as a regional production neutral trading hub, plus the first signs of the opening up of the China commodity futures market to international traders via Shanghai free zone,” Tom James of the Renovatio commodity and energy hedge fund, said. “The opening up of the China market will be a big positive for the Singapore trading hub due to increased arbitrage trading activity being made possible for more market participants.”
During the Rubber Exchange Forum, a workshop on the educational and technical aspects of rubber trading, speakers offered a historical overview of the Asian rubber market and an introduction to rubber futures contracts.
Show organizers announced that World Rubber Week will continue to be hosted in 2017.
