Global Rubber Compound Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Global Rubber Compound Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

A rubber compound could be a combination of 3 to 15 different ingredients of thousands of different compositions and vendors. Compounding is the process of adding additives, fillers, polymers, or reinforcements to polymer materials in a homogeneous polymer mixture to optimize properties to meet a given set of performance requirements.

A rubber compound is a mixture of the base polymer(s), fillers and other chemicals which form a finished rubber material. More precisely, the term compound refers to a specific blend of ingredients tailored for particular characteristics required to optimize performance in some specific service. To the elastomer, the compounder may add reinforcing agents, such as carbon black, colored pigments, curing or vulcanizing agents, activators, plasticizers, accelerators, anti-oxidants or antiradiation additives. There may be hundreds of such combinations.

Market Overview:

The latest research study on the global Rubber Compound market finds that the global Rubber Compound market reached a value of USD 8994.13 million in 2022. It’s expected that the market will achieve USD 10608.75 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 2.79% during the forecast period.

COVID-19 affects the natural rubber market.

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the evolution of the natural rubber market is relatively complicated. Due to the continuous disturbance of the epidemic situation in major natural rubber producing areas such as Southeast Asia in the early stage, although it did not have a substantial impact on rubber tapping, there were marginal positive factors. It is mainly reflected in the limited operation of processing plants, the shortage of standard rubber, and the shortage of foreign labor, which affects rubber tapping to a certain extent, as well as the problems of limited transportation and backlog of goods in ports. Since the epidemic has suppressed spot output, driving the rapid rebound of raw materials and futures disk, it has affected the operation of the Rubber Compound market.

The challenges of the epidemic still exist, and it will take time for the market to recover.

Regarding the important impact of the epidemic on the market, it is first reflected in the global market trading volume. The trading positions of major rubber varieties have declined, and then slowly recovered. The second is the impact on logistics and transportation. The delay and stagnation of goods arriving at the port will cause continuous disruption to the supply chain. Finally, it is reflected in the price. The mismatch between supply and demand leads to the expansion of spot prices and spreads. With the implementation of the vaccination schedule, the impact of the epidemic will gradually weaken, and the Rubber Compound market will resume growth.

Multinational policies provide support to the industry.

With the rapid development of the rubber products industry in recent years, the demand for Rubber Compound has become stronger and stronger. No matter in terms of product type, quality, or production capacity, there are new high standards. During the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period, China rubber product industry adjusted its industrial structure, changed its homogeneity, eliminated low-end and backward production capacity, and proposed the concept of green development and innovative development, which created favorable conditions for the development of the Rubber Compound industry. The policy provides a favorable environment for the development of the Rubber Compound industry.

Lack of talent and technology.

Compared with the rapid development of the Rubber Compound industry, there is a relative shortage of high-quality talents in the industry. In the process of global competition, high-level R&D and management personnel with international vision and experience are crucial to the development of enterprises. The technical requirements for the research and development of the rubber compound material formula and the design of the processing technology are high, and professional research and development personnel are required to continuously carry out innovative improvement and new formula research and development on the existing product system. There are insufficient technical leaders in the industry, weak innovation teams, and lack of echelon construction and talent reserves. At the same time, the education and training support systems of the Rubber Compound industry in many countries need to be improved, and cannot effectively cultivate high-end technical talents to meet the needs of industry development. The lack of high-end technical talents in the high-performance Rubber Compound industry has become an unfavorable factor restricting the future development of the industry.

Region Overview:

In 2022, the share of the Rubber Compound market in Europe stood at 29.37%.

Company Overview:

Hexpol is one of the major players operating in the Rubber Compound market, holding a share of 14.26% in 2022.

Hexpol

HEXPOL Rubber Compounding is a member of HEXPOL AB, a Swedish Company listed on the OMX Nordic Stock Exchange. Rubber Compounding is one of the world leading groups in the development and production of advanced, high-quality Rubber compounds and is one of only a few truly global suppliers in the industry.

Chunghe Compounding

Chunghe Compounding specializes in the production of rubber compound and is committed to serving mid-to-high-end corporate customers.

Segmentation Overview:

By type, Natural Rubber Compounding segment accounted for the largest share of market in 2022.

EPDM Compounding

Ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM rubber or EPDM Compounding) provides properties that are resistant to aging, weathering, ozone, oxygen, and many chemicals. It offers excellent high and low-temperature stability, plus steam and water resistance. EPDM has dynamic and mechanical properties between natural rubber and SBR.

EPDM products can be used in the production of extruded rubber or molded rubber products for numerous automotive, electrical, and mechanical applications.

SBR Compounding

Styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) is one of the cheaper synthetic general-purpose elastomers that is sometimes used as a substitute for natural rubber. The addition of styrene lowers the price and contributes to good wear and bonding properties. Styrene also improves the strength, abrasion resistance, and blend properties of polybutadiene. The fatigue resistance and low-temperature properties of SBR are usually inferior to natural rubber, whereas its heat-aging properties and abrasion resistance are better. Like natural rubber, SBR is vulnerable to thermal and oxidative degradation due to the presence of double bonds in the polydiene backbone. Degradation generally occurs through cross-linking, which leads to an increase in stiffness (embrittlement). SBR also has poor chemical resistance which means its solvent resistance and weathering properties are inferior to most other elastomers.

Styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) can be used in similar applications as natural rubber elastomers, except in severe dynamic applications due to the inferior fatigue resistance. Typical applications include drive couplings, haul-off pads, conveyor belts, shoe soles and heels, adhesives, roll coverings, car tires and other molded rubber goods.

BR Compounding

Butadiene rubber is supposed to be the most elastic rubber type. The chemical name of this rubber is Polybutadiene. This rubber is polymerized butadiene and is usually used in combination with other rubber types. It consists of polybutadiene, an elastomer (elastic polymer) built up by chemically linking multiple molecules of butadiene to form giant molecules or polymers. The polymer is noted for its high resistance to abrasion, low heat buildup, and resistance to cracking.

Natural Rubber Compounding

Natural rubber refers to an elastic solid made of natural rubber latex collected from rubber trees through coagulation and drying processes. Currently, rubber is harvested mainly in the form of latex from the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) or others. The latex is a sticky, milky and white colloid drawn off by making incisions in the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels in a process called tapping. The latex then is refined into the rubber that is ready for commercial processing. In major areas, latex is allowed to coagulate in the collection cup. The coagulated lumps are collected and processed into dry forms for sale.

Natural rubber is used extensively in many applications and products, either alone or in combination with other materials. In most of its useful forms, it has a large stretch ratio and high resilience and also is water-proof.

NBR Compounding

Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR Rubber) is a copolymer of acrylonitrile and butadiene monomers, which has excellent oil resistance (especially alkane oil), high wear resistance, good air tightness, and high heat resistance. It has the advantages of good adhesion, strong adhesion and good aging resistance. The disadvantages are poor low temperature resistance, poor ozone resistance, poor insulation, slightly low elasticity, and it is not suitable for insulating materials. Nitrile rubber is more oil and acid resistant than natural rubber, and is stronger, but less flexible (the more nitrile in the polymer, the higher the oil resistance, but the less flexible the material).

Application Overview:

By application, the Automotive Industry segment occupied the biggest share from 2017 to 2022.

Key Companies in the global Rubber Compound market covered in Chapter 3:

Hutchinson
Jiangsu Guanlian New Material
Hexpol
Dyna-Mix
Polymer-Technik Elbe
Chunghe Compounding
Cooper Standard
American Phoenix
Qingdao Fukai
AirBoss Rubber Compounding
Kraiburg
Soucy Group

In Chapter 4 and Chapter 14.2, on the basis of types, the Rubber Compound market from 2018 to 2029 is primarily split into:

EPDM Compounding
SBR Compounding
BR Compounding
Natural Rubber Compounding
NBR Compounding
Others

In Chapter 5 and Chapter 14.3, on the basis of Downstream Industry, the Rubber Compound market from 2018 to 2029 covers:

Automotive Industry
Building & Construction Industry
Wire & Cable
Footwear
Others

Geographically, the detailed analysis of consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, historic and forecast (2018-2029) of the following regions are covered in Chapter 8 to Chapter 14:

North America (United States, Canada)
Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden)
Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia)
Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina)
Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa)