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Rubber Chemical Markets

Industry News


We track rubber chemical industry market trends using a wide range of industry sources. Optimum market insight is achieved by combining public information with RCCL's extensive range of confidential information which is pooled together using RCCL's proprietary database and reporting systems.

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February (2024)

Continental Rubber Group: Enhancing Speciality Tire Production in Sri Lanka  Link...

Continental is enhancing local pre-production capacities at its Kalatura, Sri Lanka plant enabling it to produce material handling tires self-sufficiently, thereby reducing cross-country supply chain dependencies. The investment of 13 million Euro will enable further growth for the material handing business.


September (2023)

Continental Rubber Group: Using rCB in Solid Tires  Link...

Continental is using Pyrum's recovered carbon black (rCB) in its newly produced Super Elastic solid tires at its tire plant in Korbach, Germany. This supports sustainability initiatives which are gaining importance in the speciality tire segment where customers want to make their operating processes environmentally friendly, resource-saving and efficient.


June (2023)

Continental Rubber Group: Launching Series Tire with a Very High Share of Sustainable Materials  Link...

Continental is launching its UltraContact NXT tire in 19 sizes across Europe in July. The tire has 65 percent renewable, recycled and mass balance certified materials and has the EU tire-label A rating for rolling resistance, wet grip and noise. The renewable content is 32% with 28% ISCC PLUS certified materials from bio, bio-circular/circular feedstock and up to 5% recycled material.

Renewable Materials Accounting for up to 32%, these materials include: resins from the paper and wood industries; silica from rice husk ash; natural rubber.

Mass Balance Certified Materials Accounting for up to 285 these include sustainable synthetic rubber and carbon black made from biobased, bio-circular/circular feedstock.

Recycled Materials Accounting for up to 5%, this includes: recycled rubber from end-of-life tires; recycled steel; polyester fibers using recycled PET bottles.

Continental aims to have over 40% renewable and recycled content in its tires by 2030 with the ultimate aim of 100 percent sustainable materials in all tire products by 2050 at the latest.


May (2023)

Continental Rubber Group: Sells Tire Plant in Russia  Link...

Continental has sold its plant in Kaluga, Russia, to Russian company S8 Capital. Continental has now divested the majority of its activities in Russia. The transaction has been approved by the relevant authorities. Continental produced passenger tires at the plant in Kaluga. Air conditioning and power steering lines as well as parts for air suspension systems for the Russian market were also manufactured there.


March (2022)

Continental Rubber Group: Stopping Operations in Russia  Link...

Continental has suspended production operations in Russia including imports and exports from Russia company-wide.


January (2022)

Continental Rubber Group: Announces Agro ContiSeal  Link...

Continental has announced Agro ContiSeal, a new polymer for sealing punctures in agricultural tires, allowing them to continue operating. The technology is currently under development and will be put into production soon.


December (2021)

Continental Rubber Group: Low Sulphur Fuels Named Winner of Continental Challenge for Polymer Recycling Solutions  Link...

Continental has announced the winner of the second Continental Challenge for sustainable material solutions: Low Sulphur Fuels (LSF) based in Amersham, UK. The innovators at Low Sulphur Fuels had developed a convincing process with the potential to solve a number of the unanswered questions of plastics and rubber recycling.

LSF’s winning idea recycles mechanically sorted plastic materials, end-of-life tires and rubber products as well as used oils through its Fast Electrochemical Process (FEP). Within this closed-loop oxidation process, the feedstock is first heated to its gas phase and then reacted with a proprietary electrolyte. The distillate is then separated and washed, resulting in a low sulphur distillate, broad-range naphta and raw carbon black which can then be used as feedstock materials for the chemical, automotive and other industries.


September (2021)

Continental Rubber Group: World Premiere of Continental's Tire Concept Conti GreenConcept at IAA  Link...

Continental is unveiling its innovative Conti GreenConcept tire concept at this year’s IAA MOBILITY. The concept study uses current and emerging technologies to engineer sustainable PC tires. The goal of Continental’s integrative and sustainable concept is to minimize resource consumption across every link in the tire’s value chain. The resulting tire consists of a particularly high percentage of traceable, renewable, and recycled materials, with an innovative, lightweight design that conserves valuable resources, and extended service life thanks to a renewable tread.

The Conti GreenConcept contains over 50 percent sustainable materials from renewable sources or recycled. Continental defines as “sustainable” all materials that originate from closed-loop cycles, have no harmful effects on people or the environment, and are responsibly sourced as well as climate-neutral across their entire supply chains.

The GreenConcept also consists of 35 percent renewables. Among the bio-materials used are natural rubber from dandelions, silicate from the ash of rice husks and vegetable oils and resins, all leading to a significant reduction in materials based on crude oil.

The GreenConcept also consists of 17 percent recycled materials consisting of reclaimed steel and recovered carbon black, plus polyester from recycled plastic bottles for the tire’s casing. Continental is planning the gradual rollout of its ContiRe.Tex technology as of 2022, thus paving the way for the manufacture of tires using polyester yarn from recycled PET bottles.

The natural rubber used for the Conti GreenConcept tread compound is 100 percent Taraxagum natural rubber. As a special capability, the tire concept can be retreaded multiple times, with a minimal investment in terms of both time and materials. The green-colored tread baseline marks the transition from tread to casing. Undamaged casings can be reused several times. In this way, the valuable raw materials that are built into it can be reused. If a tread is renewed three times, for example, this halves the amount of material used for a casing as seen in terms of its total mileage.


July (2021)

Continental Rubber Group: Testing Tire Prototypes for E-Trucks  Link...

The premium tire manufacturer is currently performing test drives at the Contidrom with an electric truck of the specialist for electric commercial vehicles Futuricum, which has been in use for DPD Switzerland in regional traffic since March of this year. The Futuricum vehicle is based on a Volvo FH, which has been converted to an electric drive by the Futuricum parent company Designwerk Products AG. The 19-ton truck has 680 hp and, with a capacity of 680 kilowatt hours, has the largest truck battery in Europe on board. This allows a range of up to 760 kilometers without freight.

The current test series are about increasing efficiency even further. The focus is in particular on extending the range by reducing rolling resistance. In addition to the original tires, the Conti EfficientPro and brand-new prototypes are used in direct comparison. The Conti EfficientPro is a proven product that was developed in particular for long-distance transportation and emphasizes fuel efficiency. The specially manufactured prototypes were manufactured in Hanover-Stöcken, at the central location of research and development for premium tires from Continental, in an elaborate robot carving process and refined by experienced tire carvers.


April (2021)

Continental Rubber Group: Testing Tires in Dynamic Driving Simulator  Link...

Continental is investing in a state-of-the-art dynamic driving simulator in order to develop its premium OE tires more efficiently and sustainably. The high-tech installation from manufacturer Ansible Motion will go into operation in mid-2022 at Continental's largest European tire test center, the Contidrom in Wietze near Hanover. It is a Driver-in-the-loop simulator (DIL) that calculates exact driving dynamics parameters of the tires and those of the respective test vehicle.


January (2021)

Continental Rubber Group: Manufactures First Tire with New HL Load Index  Link...

Continental has manufactured the first passenger tire with the new HL load index. The new higher load index is required for large powerful cars and SUVs with electric or hybrid drives. These cars are significantly heavier than their ICE predecessors with limited scope for fitting larger higher load capacity tires. Inflated to the same pressure, these tires have a higher load capacity than those built to the former XL standard. Continental is expecting to see growing demand from OEMs for tires with the new HL code.


December (2020)

Continental Rubber Group: Vision 2030 Strategic Program for Tire Business  Link...

Continental has set out its new strategic program for the Tires business area in its Vision 2030 strategic program. The program is focused on customer-centric alignment as well as targeting profitable growth through differntiation in sustainability and digital solutions.

Key Points Include:

  • Profitable Growth
    • Expansion in Asia and North America. Further product growth and differentiation in PC and LT tires for electric and UHP vehicles.Growth in truck tires through fleet management and services and growth is specialist tires such as two wheeler, race and industrial tires.
  • Digital Solutions
    • Future products will be complemented by an ever-expanding service offering, aligned even more precisely with the different customer segments.
  • Sustainabilty
    • Aiming to be the most progressive tire manufacturer for sustainability by 2030. This leads onto the aim for 100 percent sustainably produced materials in its tire products by 2050. Where sustainable materials are defined as those which originate in a closed material cycle, have no harmful impact on humans or the environment, are procured responsibly and are carbon neutral along the supply chain.


Continental Rubber Group: Expanding Truck Tire Production at Modipuram, India Tire Plant  Link...

Continental Tires is expanding production capacity for truck and bus radial tires at its plant in India for export to the APAC region. The expansion will be completed over the next 18 months raising capacity by 30%.


September (2020)

Continental Rubber Group: Confirms Closure of Aachen Tire Plant  Link...

Continental's supervisory board has (amongst other items) approved the closure of the Aachen tire plant at the end of 2021.


Continental Rubber Group: Planning Closure of Aachen Tire Plant  Link...

Continental is planning to close its Aachen tire production plant by the end of 2021. The final decision is pending.


June (2020)

Continental Rubber Group: Tire Group Creates New Sustainability Department  Link...

As of April 1, 2020 Claus Petschick heads up the newly formed sustainability department responsible for the strategic direction and worldwide steering of all sustainability projects forming part of the company's Vision 2030 strategy program.The program focuses on the four strategic topics of climate change mitigation, clean mobility, circular economies, and sustainable supply chains. In order to make the tires of the future even more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly in terms of production, use and recyclability, Continental is systematically investing in the research and development of new technologies, alternative materials, and environmentally compatible production processes.


February (2020)

Continental Rubber Group: Producing Tires with Cokoon Dip Technology Jointly Developed with Kordsa  Link...

Continental and Kordsa started series production (2019) of the first 250k PC tires featuring their new sustainable adhesive technology. This technology enables rubber bonding activation of textile reinforcing materials without the traditional RFL dip (resorcinol formaldehyde latex).

Cokoon was first announced as an open innovation technology in March 2019, more than 40 companies have expressed an interest in testing the material and joinging the licensing pool. Over 20 companies have been sampled with materials. All the interested parties have been invited to join the pool and obtain free licensing in order to contribute to the development of this new green technology.


October (2019)

Continental Rubber Group: Official Opening of Mississippi Truck Tire Plant  Link...

Continental held the official opening of their new greenfield truck tire plant in Mississippi, USA. Commercial production is due to start in early 2020, with capacity being responsive to market demand and Continental's strategic market development.


September (2019)

Continental Rubber Group: Enhancing Long-term Competitiveness  Link...

Continental have released details of their Strategy 2030 and Transformation 2019-2029 structural program.

The plan is looking for a reduction in gross costs of around €500 million annually from 2023 as well as changes in up to 20 thousand jobs worldwide with simultaneous expansion of growth areas.

Changes directly affecting the rubber segments include the planned cessation of truck tire production in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia by end of 2019.

The tire business is included as one of the company's key growth areas where it is promoting organic growth with the goal of becoming one of the top three suppliers worldwide.

Expanding business with industrial customers and end customers beyond original equipment is also a goal where they are targetting a transition from 30 to 40% of replacement market share. This covers conveyor belts, hoses, spare tires and auto spare parts in the agricultural, railway, mining and construction industries. The aim being to reduce dependency on automobile manufacturers which is subject to cyclical economic trends.

Further projects will be announced as the structural program progresses. These include certain projects that have already been defined and are related to other strategic options such as the possible sale of individual business segments and subsegments.


July (2019)

Continental Rubber Group: Ground Breaking for Motorcycle Tire Plant in Thailand  Link...

Continental has broken ground on its new motorcycle tire plant in Thailand. The company plans to invest 26 million Euro with initial production for radial tires coming on stream in 2021. Production of bias-ply/cross-ply tires is planned for later.

The new plant is being built in the immediate vicinity of the pc tire factory which Continental opened in March of this year. Production from this plant is expected to serve demand from new markets.


June (2019)

Continental Rubber Group: Extending OTR Production at Lousado, Portugal  Link...

Continental is investing approximately 100 million Euro at their facility in Lousado, Portugal for new OTR capacity for radial earthmoving and port tires with a diameter of 24 inches and above. The new facility will be adjacent to the radial agricultural facility opened in 2017.


April (2019)

Continental Rubber Group: Adding Capacity for ContiSeal and ContiSilent Tires at US Sumter SC Plant  Link...

Continental Tires is adding capacity for its ContiSeal and ContiSilent tires at its plant in Sumter, SC, USA. These tires are currently produced at two plants in Europe.


March (2019)

Continental Rubber Group: Celebrates Opening of its Greenfield Tire Plant in Rayong, Thailand  Link...

Continental celebrated the grand opening of its new greenfield tire plant in Rayong, Thailand. The plant has started on schedule, 2 years after the groungbreaking ceremongy. The new tire plant is a 250-million-euro investment in Thailand and is equipped with state-of-the-art technology to produce about four million passenger and light truck premium tires per year for Thailand and the whole APAC by 2022.


March (2017)

Continental Rubber Group: Opens Third Phase Expansion at Hefei Tire Plant  Link...

With a total investment of around €250 million, the Hefei tire plant Phase III expansion will enable Continental Tires to boost its annual production capacity from currently about 8 million to 14 million tires by 2019. Since 2011, Continental Tires has been systematically ramping up the production capacity in the Hefei tire plant, which amounted to a total investment of about €570 million.


January (2017)

Continental Rubber Group: Selects Thailand for New Greenfield Tire Plant  Link...

Continental finalized the site selection process for its new passenger and light truck tires production facility in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and decided to build it in the Province of Rayong in Thailand. In the first phase the investment into this new tire plant will amount to around € 250 million with a planned production of about 4.0 million passenger and light truck tires (PLT) per year by 2022. The start of operations is planned for 2019.


November (2016)

Continental Rubber Group: Groundbreaking for Mississippi Plant  Link...

Continental officially broken ground at the site of its new tire plant near Clinton, Mississippi, in the United States. Start of production of truck and bus tires is scheduled for end 2019.


October (2016)

Continental Rubber Group: Inauguration of Reconstructed Truck Tire Production Hall - Otrokovice, Czech Republic  Link...

Otrokovice, October 12, 2016 – Continental inaugurated a newly reconstructed truck tire production hall in its manufacturing facility in Otrokovice, Czech Republic. The reconstruction project was the biggest investment of the Continental Corporation in Otrokovice tire plant in the last three years, amounting to around €165 million


Continental Rubber Group: Acquires Hoosier Racing Tire  Link...

Hanover, October 4, 2016. The Continental Corporation continues to expand its leading technology expertise with targeted acquisitions as announced. The international automotive supplier, tire manufacturer and industrial partner has acquired the tire specialist Hoosier Racing Tire (Lakeville, Indiana, USA).


July (2016)

Continental Rubber Group: Acquires Bandvulc, UK  Link...

Hanover, Germany – Continental Tyre Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Continental AG, has acquired Bandvulc, a UK fleet management service provider and independent truck tire retreader.


November (2015)

Continental Rubber Group: Producing OTR Tires at Eurotire  Link...

Continental Rubber Group is starting to produce a range of OTR radial tires in an agreement with Eurotire, Romania


July (2015)

Continental Rubber Group: Conti.eContact specially developed for hybrid vehicles scores A/A rating on EU Tire Label  Link...

Hanover, July 2015. Continental has taken the Conti.eContact – originally launched in 2011 with electric vehicles in mind – and refined it specifically to meet the needs of hybrid models. Thanks to the introduction of numerous technologies and innovations in the production process, this extensively hand-crafted summer tire is the first from Continental to obtain the top ‘A’ rating on the EU Tire Label for both wet grip and rolling resistance, without making substantial compromises in terms of the many other performance characteristics.


April (2015)

Continental Rubber Group: Continues expansion of Hefei Plant  Link...

Additional 40 million Euro allocated to increase capacity to 8 million units as part of the continuing expansion project.


February (2015)

Continental Rubber Group: HQ Relocation to Dubai for EMEA PLT Replacement Business Units  Link...

To drive forward the expansion of its Passenger and Light Truck Tire (PLT) as well as Commercial Vehicle Tire (CVT) replacement business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Continental has relocated the relevant business units from Hanover in Germany to Dubai, where the marketing, sales, customer services and controlling functions for the region have been based since the beginning of this year. “In line with our motto ‘in the market for the market’, through this step we are sending out a signal to our customers and to drivers in the region. We are aiming to use the new proximity to help us gain a better understanding of local requirements in more than 15 countries – and offer optimal solutions,” said Dr. Hartmut Wöhler, Head of Marketing & Sales PLT Replacement EMEA


March (2014)

Continental Rubber Group: Start of Radial Truck Tire Production - India  Link...

Continental starts production and distribution of radial truck tires in India Dealer network with more than 1,400 outlets and sales & customer service in 70 cities Local production capacity for initially 220,000 radial truck tires .


January (2014)

Continental Rubber Group: Official Opening of Tire Plant - Sumter, SC.  Link...

SUMTER, S.C.—With about 400 government officials, community leaders, tire dealers and company employees in attendance, Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C. officially opened its $500 million passenger and light truck tire plant in Sumter on Jan. 28


September (2013)

Continental Rubber Group: Investment in High Technology at Korbach Site  Link...

As part of their 2025 strategy, Continental will invest in development and production of more challenging tire sizes (U-UHP) at their established production site for PC and LT tires in Korbach, Germany. The additional capacity will come on line in 2016 ramping up to 400k units pa by 2018.


August (2013)

Continental Rubber Group: Russian Subsiduary, Kaluga has started production  Link...

Continental A.G.s new facility in Kaluga has started production. The first phase is designed to produce 4 million tires per annum. This capacity will be quadrupled over time.


June (2013)

Continental to expand Puchov truck and bus tire plant  Link...

€100 million investment in Continental’s biggest European truck and bus tire plant - Capacity expansion to three million truck and bus tires annually


Continental Rubber Group: Expansion to Puchov Truck Tyre Plant  Link...

Continental A.G. to add 400k truck tires pa to the Puchov factility in Slovakia. This volume is in addtion to the previously announced 45% capacity increase in car and light truck production at the Puchov facility.


March (2013)

Continental Rubber Group: Planning Additional 22 MM Tire Units by 2016  Link...

Continental is planning a combined global increase in tire production of 22 MM units pa by 2016. This total comes from a combination of projects in North America, Brazil, Russia, India and China with a combined capex of 1MMM Euro.


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