Some Data on Synthetic and Natural Rubber Production and Revenues

Based on Internet research, global data on recent synthetic and natural rubber production and revenues are presented in tables 1, 2, and 3.  The data comes from a variety of sources, for example, various market studies.  Amounts provided at these studies can very, for example, 2017 synthetic rubber production might be given as 14.8 or 15.3 million metric tons (mt).  So, a “best guess” average or median is used in the tables.  The tables’ data are met only to be approximate; best used in comparing difference magnitudes in production and revenues from year to year and between rubber types.

table 1    year	synthetic rubber production (millions of mt)	price per mt (synthetic rubber)	synthetic rubber revenues (millions usd)
2014	14.2	$                2,600	$            36,920
2015	14.5	$                2,100	$            30,450
2016	14.8	$                2,024	$            29,955
2017	15.1	$                2,022	$            30,532

table 2     year	natural rubber production (millions of mt)	price per mt (natural rubber)	natural rubber revenues (millions usd)
2014	12.1	$                1,950	$            23,595
2015	12.3	$                1,560	$            19,188
2016	12.7	$                1,378	$            17,501
2017	13.2	$                1,651	$            21,793

table 3 synthetic rubber name	2017 production (millions of mt)	2017 average price per mt	2017 revenues (millions usd)
styrene butadiene (sbr)	5.1	$                2,000	$            10,268
polybutadiene (br)	3.6	$                1,900	$              6,886
polyisoprene rubber (ir)	0.8	$                2,800	$              2,114
butyl rubber (iir)	1.2	$                2,400	$              2,899
nitrile rubber (nbr)	0.6	$                2,800	$              1,691
ethylene propylene diene monomer (epdm)	1.4	$                2,700	$              3,669
totals	12.7		$            27,527

Comparisons between table 1 and table 2 are interesting in that synthetic and natural rubber compete with one another, based on various factors.  From the tables, we see that synthetic rubber is used from 1.4 to 1.7 times more than natural rubber (on a global basis).  These differences should represent the various factors that go into decisions on replacing synthetic with natural rubber or vice versa in products.   Also, the tables show (assuming the price per mt data, which are approximate annual averages, are correct) that natural rubber tends to be from 70 to 80% cheaper per metric ton than synthetic rubber.

Table 3 shows six frequently-used polymers identified as rubbers.  The table shows the total 2017 production for these six as 12.7 million metric tons.   This amount differs from the table 1 2017 synthetic rubber production (15.1 million mt) because other rubber-like polymers are also manufactured (other than the six in table 3).   And tables 1 and 3 suggest that about 2.4 million metric tons (15.1 - 12.7) of these other polymers were produced in 2017.