Rubber Product Manufacturers
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 1,300 rubber product manufacturers in the US process natural, synthetic and reclaimed rubber materials into a wide range of rubber products. Products include tires and inner tubes, hoses and belts, fuel bladders, rubber bands and erasers, balloons, haircare products, pacifiers and baby bottle components, floor and car mats, inflatable mattresses and pools, latex foam rubber, roofing membranes, sheathing, and rubber components for machinery.
Regulation and Safety
The industry is highly regulated due to the chemical mixtures and processes used to manufacture rubber products.
Varying Raw Material Costs
Manufacturers face significant fluctuations in the price of synthetic rubber from year to year.
Industry size & Structure
A typical tire manufacturer employs about 604 workers and generates about $250 million annually. A typical tire retreading manufacturer employs 23 workers and generates $6 million annually. A typical hose and belt manufacturer employs 101 workers and generates $28 million annually. A typical manufacturer of mechanical rubber products employs 93 workers and generates $23 million annually.
- The rubber products manufacturing industry consists of 1,300 companies that employ 135,000 workers, and generates $45 billion annually.
- Primary customers include automotive (manufacturers, suppliers, and repair shops), machinery and appliance manufacturers and repair services, aerospace (manufacturers and suppliers), industrial supply distributors, building materials suppliers, and consumer retail.
- The tire manufacturing segment is highly concentrated with the eight largest firms representing 85% of revenue. For the rest of the industry, the top eight firms in each segment represent 30-52% of their segment’s revenue.
- Large companies include Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone, Proto Labs, Inc., CTI Industries, Ames Rubber Manufacturing, Warco Biltrite, Passaic Rubber, and Jefferson Rubber Works.
Industry Forecast
Rubber Product Manufacturers Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Sep 30, 2024 - Wages Climb to New High
- According to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, producer prices for rubber product manufacturers were unchanged in July compared to a year ago after rising 4%% in the previous July-versus-July annual comparison. Industry producer prices started a steep climb in early 2021 and peaked in April last year. Since then, prices have been relatively flat. The weakness in pricing power follows a decline in shipments and sales by the plastic and rubber products industry as the manufacturing sector cooled. Employment by makers of rubber products shrank 3% year over year in July, while average industry wages rose 6.6% over the same period to a new high of $26.93 per hour, BLS data show.
- In the run-up to the November election, the presidential candidates are promising to revive the US’s languishing manufacturing sector. As part of her "America Forward" agenda, VP Kamala Harris has outlined $100 billion in new investments in manufacturing, offering tax credits to boost investment and create industrial jobs, investments in AI, science, and energy development, and supporting American-made products. Former President Trump has proposed instituting a four-year plan to boost US manufacturing so that the nation doesn’t need to rely on China for crucial goods. He has promised big corporate tax cuts for manufacturing and protectionist across-the-board tariffs. In September, Trump threatened to slap farm and construction equipment manufacturer John Deere with a 200% tariff if it moved some production from Iowa to Mexico as planned. The Fed’s rate cut in September and signal of more to come by year’s end stands to benefit the US industrial sector.
- Researchers at Edison Agrosciences are working to develop and commercialize natural rubber made from sunflowers, Rubber World reported in July. Amid rising demand, the US lacks a domestic source of natural rubber. Moreover, the global supply is currently sourced from a disease-susceptible tree species grown primarily in South and East Asia, which is vulnerable to tropical deforestation. The ample US sunflower crop has the potential to produce over 25,000 tons of natural rubber annually. However, the current concentration of rubber in sunflowers is too low for economical extraction. Edison Agrosciences recently closed on a $600,000 seed financing round to support its efforts to increase rubber concentration in each sunflower plant, thereby improving the per-acre yield, Rubber World reports. The funding will be used to advance R&D, increase production capabilities for customer product evaluation, and further develop the supply chain infrastructure to bring the technology to market.
- More than 200 chemical plants across the US – including those producing chloroprene used to make rubber footwear – will be required to curb airborne toxic pollutants under a new regulation announced by the Biden administration, The New York Times reported in April. The new EPA rule has classified chloroprene as a likely carcinogen. Most of the plants affected by the rule are in Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast and in the Ohio River Valley and West Virginia, according to NYT. Other toxic chemicals covered by the rule include 1,3-butadiene, which is used to make synthetic rubber and plastics, and ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride, both of which are used to make a variety of plastics and vinyl products. The EPA said that the rule would cut toxic pollutants by 6,200 tons annually and reduce emissions of ethylene oxide and chloroprene by 80%.
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