The risk of rubber shortage threatens the automobile
For several weeks, the big manufacturers have been talking about the risk of a bottleneck in rubber supply. A raw material which is the subject of enormous tensions. And this is...
23/02/2022
For several weeks, the big manufacturers have been talking about the risk of a bottleneck in rubber supply. A raw material which is the subject of enormous tensions. And that would inevitably affect the tyre.
There was a shortage of lithium batteries, there is a shortage of semiconductors, but another supply problem could hit the automotive industry: rubber. Thailand, the leading rubber producer, has struggled in recent months in the face of very low prices for this tire raw material. Producers were therefore encouraged to plant more trees and increase the pace, but in 2020 the situation has changed. China has indeed ordered huge quantities of rubber subsequently stored in China to protect itself from an excessive rebound in the market.
Result: prices have skyrocketed, reaching 2 dollars per kilogram last February. A record in four years, and analysts predict that it could rise to 5 dollars per kilogram by 2025. This will obviously have a significant impact on the price of tires if this increase were to be confirmed.
As with semiconductors, the problem is structural for the automotive industry, which has always operated on a tight schedule, with no stock. In normal times, this actually saves money, but during an economic crisis, this leads to peaks in demand which cause prices to explode and cause shortages.