Basically rubber is an elastic solid material retrieved from latex of many tropical trees. However, “Hevea brasiliensis” is the most commercially cultivated rubber plant. Rubber is used for many purposes which may include erasers to tyres, tubes & industrial products.
Rubber finds application in number of products, which are used in all industries. India is the third largest producer and fourth largest consumer of natural rubber in the world and also the fifth largest consumer of natural rubber & synthetic rubber put together.
The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is bio-based tires helping market growth. The tires used in automotive vehicles are going to be bio-based during the forecast period. There is a great turmoil in the rubber industry to manufacture automotive vehicle tires made from renewable raw materials.
A variety of manufacturers ranging from large multinational corporations to small privately owned companies compete in this industry. Regionally, Thailand is the biggest production area of natural rubber, about 30.41% production market share of the global production in 2016, also the leader in the whole natural rubber industry. Then Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, China and Indian are the main production regions in turn.
The global production of natural rubber has reached 13030.2 K MT by the end of year 2016, with annual growth rate around 2-3% during the past years.