◎ Yang Li, Secretary General of CRIA Rubber Products Branch 

I. Economic Operation Conditions of Rubber Products Industry in 2017

1. Completion Conditions of Major Economic Indexes

According to the statistics of CRIA Rubber Products Branch (the following date is collected by CRIA), in 2017, 58 key member enterprises completed the gross industrial output value of 49.920 Billion Yuan in total, which had a year-on-year (same below) growth of 16.52%, with an increase of 4.59%; the export delivery value was 12.007 Billion Yuan, which had a growth of 26.08%, with an increase of 12.26%, and accounted for 24.05% of the gross industrial output, with an increase of 1.82%; the realized sales income was 45.235 Billion Yuan, which had a growth of 14.59%, with an increase of 2.69%; the realized total profit was 4.251 Billion Yuan, which had a growth of 20.09%, with a reduction of 6.28%. There were 4 enterprises with loss and the industrial scale of losses was 6.9%, which was basically at with that in the same period of last year, how- ever, the amount of loss sharply reduced. 

Seen from the conditions of each quarter, compared with that of the former three quarters, the growth of the major economic indexes of the fourth quarter increased with different degrees, in which, the growth of gross industrial output value, export delivery value, sales income and total profit increased by 2.56%, 3.88%, 7.72% and 11.49% compared with that of the former three quarters respectively. 

Fig. 1: Growth Conditions of Major Economic Indexes of Rubber Products Industry in 2017 and 2016 (%) 

Fig. 2: Growth Conditions of Major Economic Indexes in Various Quarters of 2017 (%) 

Fig. 3: Growth Conditions of Major Economic Indexes from January to December 2017 (%) 

See Fig. 1 for growth conditions of major economic indexes of rubber products industry in 2017 and 2016; see Fig. 2 for growth conditions of major economic indexes in various quarters of 2017; and see Fig. 3 for growth conditions of major economic indexes from January to December 2017.

2. Output and Growth Conditions of Major Products

In 2017, as for 16 major products according to the statistics of Rubber Products Branch, the output of 11 products had different degrees of growth compared with that in last year, in which, the output of expansion joint,  rubber waterstop and railway anti-vibration article had a relatively large growth of 186.35%, 112.25% and 45.14% respectively; the output of O-shape seal ring, framework oil seal, industrial adhesive tape, brake cup membrane, rubber covered roller, automobile anti-vibration article, bridge bearing and rubber components of imported automobiles   also had different degrees of growth; the output of 5 products including rubber dam, pure glue seal stripe, rubber fender, rubber anti-corrosion lining and compounded seal strip had different degrees of decrease, in which the output of rubber dam had the largest fall to reach 38.18%. See Fig. 4 for growth conditions of the output of 4 major products in 2017.

Fig. 4: Growth Conditions of the Output of 4 Major Products in 2017 (%) 

II. Analysis of Industrial Economic Conditions

Among the major economic indexes of the industry in 2017, the gross industrial output value, export delivery value, sales income and total profit kept a growth. Affected by factors such as overall recovery of world economy and acceleration of increase speed of global trading, the increase speed of import was outstanding compared with the other indexes, with a large increase amplitude.

Since the national safety and environmental protection requirements are increasingly severe, the price of major raw materials such as rubber had a sharp fluctuation, the raw materials such as carbon black, rubber chemicals and rubber are short in supply and their prices go high, some enterprises limit and stop their production, which results in increase of product cost, decline in profit margin, large decrease of profitability and obvious phenomenon of  production and income increase without profit increase of rubber products enterprises.

As the nation constantly takes measures to eliminate the outdated capacity and clear the zombie enterprises, the dragging effect of such enterprises on the whole industrial economy is reduced. There are less enterprises with loss in the rubber products industry, the amount of loss is sharply lowered, and the overall development of industrial economy returns to be stable and becomes better. 

The economic operation data and development conditions of rubber products industry have the best and stable performance among various sub-sectors in China rubber industry, which is mainly because that the industry has a relatively high added value of products and technical content as well as strong anti-risk capability.

At present, the development of the rubber products industry is in a key phase, the problems such as large ratio of midand low-end capacity, inadequate input ability in innovation and environmental protection and lacking of high-quality professional talents troubled the enterprises, the enterprises must seek for new thoughts and new advantages for new round of competition development, seek for development reform driven by innovation and obtain sustainable development by technical upgrading, product upgrading, elimination of outdated capacity, merger and recombination and transformation of economic development mode.

III. Consumption Conditions of Major Raw Materials

1. Consumption conditions of natural rubber

Fig. 5: Consumption Conditions of Natural Rubber of 47 Key Enterprises in Rubber Products Industry in 2017 

Fig. 6: Forecast of Consumption of Natural Rubber in 2018 

See Fig. 5 for consumption conditions of natural rubber of 47 key enterprises in rubber products industry in 2017 and Fig. 6 for forecast of consumption of natural rubber in 2018.

2. Consumption conditions of carbon black

Fig. 7: Consumption Conditions of Carbon Black of 47 Key Enterprises in 2017 

Fig. 8: Forecast of Consumption of Carbon Black of Key Enterprises in 2018 ​​​​​​​

Carbon black is an important raw material for rubber products industry, which has a large consumption each year, and domestic carbon black is mainly used. See Fig. 7 for consumption conditions of carbon black of 47 key enterprises 2017 and Fig. 8 for forecast of consumption of carbon black of key enterprises in 2018.

IV. Development Conditions of Leading Enterprises and Industrial Dynamics

1. Conditions of Top 10 Enterprises in Rubber Products Industry in 2017

See Fig. 9 for top 10 enterprises in sales income of rubber products industry in 2017 and Fig. 10 for top 10 enterprises in gross industrial output value.

Fig. 9: Top 10 Enterprises in Sales Income of Rubber Products Industry in 2017 

Fig. 10: Top 10 Enterprises in Gross Industrial Output Value 

In 2017, the sales income of top 10 enterprises in rubber products was 38.719 Billion Yuan in total, which increased by 14.14% compared with that in 2016, accounted for 86.50% of the statistical data of the industry and is in a trend of constant growth. In it, the growth of the sales income of two companies, Jiangyin Haida Rubber and Plastics and Taicang Guanlian High Polymer Material, exceeded 50%; the sales income of two enterprises, Anhui Zhongding and Ningbo Tuopu, also kept a 2-digit growth; and the sales income of only two enterprises had a negative growth.

2. Industrial Development Trend

In the list of 2017 Global Top 50 in Non-tire Rubber Products, the ranking of Zhuzhou Times New Material and Anhui Zhongding Sealing Elements moved forward by one place, so Times New Material ranked 15th and Zhongding Sealing Elements ranked 18th. Previously, top 20 in global non-tire rubber products have been rmly occupied by the enterprises from Europe, America, Japan, etc., the breakthrough of Times New Material and Zhongding Sealing Elements becomes the breakthrough of Chinese enterprises in world non-tire rubber products industry.

Along with rapid development of rubber products industry, there are multiple enterprises in China which have reached or been closer to world top 50, for example, it is hopeful that Ningbo Tuopu Group Co., Ltd. will enter top 50.

The non-tire rubber products enterprises in China have a clustering phenomenon to form professional product bases such as Zhejiang Haining China Automobile Rubber Components Production Base, Hebei Hengshui Engineering Rubber Industry Base and Wenzhou Rubber Products Production Base. China is gradually becoming a world non-tire rubber products manufacturing base and center.

At present, the layout conditions of Chinese rubber products enterprises overseas are: Anhui Zhongding Group sets up wholly-owned subsidiaries or branches in 17 countries such as America, Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland, it constantly enlarges its product variety and scope and it constantly deepens international process. As the earliest and most successful enterprise going out and establishing factory through joint venture and cooperation overseas among Chinese rubber products enterprises, Zhongding Group possesses national technical center, academician workstation and post-doctoral research center and takes the lead in the industry in aspects such as formula process and mold manufacturing. Especially, Zhongding Group has insisted on internationalization strategy, introduce, digest and absorb the advanced technologies and processes of Europe and America, vigorously introduce advanced tool and equipment to further consolidate its industrial advantages.

Times New Material sets up overseas companies in 7 countries such as America, Germany, Japan, Australia, Mexico and Slovakia, the technical level and grade of its products are rapidly improved and its economic scale rapidly expands. As a leading enterprise in domestic non-tire rubber products industry, Times New Material insists on the development path of “informatization, internationalization and diversi cation” and its products cover the elds of accessory market of rubber products such as rail traf c, wind power generation, automobile, special equipment and environmental water treatment.

In addition, compared with advanced level overseas, the level of Chinese rubber products industry still has a large gap. It is mainly expressed as that only 2 enterprises in the industry are internationalized enterprises at present; most of the enterprises have poor R&D capacity and have insufficient basic theoretical research and cutting-edge technology and research on raw materials, the level of their existing R&D infrastructure is not high and the experimental means are lacked; early development and simultaneous development of the products are insuf cient and self R&D ability and innovative results and hi-end products with high technical content are lacked; the automatic, intelligent and informational management level of the equipment is not high; the in uence of the national brands is not high, and the popularity is insuf cient, and international famous brands are lacked; the management level of most enterprises is not high and these enterprises have certain gap with overseas.

V. Expectation for 2018

In 2018, the economic development of rubber products industry will continue the trend of stable growth in the past two years, the economic growth will slow down with stabilization and the industry will gradually transit from high-speed growth phase to high-quality development phase. Along with a series of bull policies such as deep integration of national “the Belt and Road” strategy, implementation of active nance and taxation policy, promotion of supply-side structural reform and new energy strategy, it will also bring about new opportunities for development of rubber products enterprises.