12 OCTOBER 2001 HOUSTON, TEXAS USA - If the attack on terrorism mushrooms into a global war, the world won’t have to put up with a critical rubber shortage as it did during World War II, according to James McGraw, Managing Director and CEO of the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers (IISRP).
“There should not be a shortage because today the world’s annual capacity of both synthetic and natural rubber adds up to an amazing 20 million metric tons, and that’s a lot of rubber,” McGraw said. “Of that amount, the yearly capacity of synthetic rubber manufacturing plants around the globe totals about 12 million metric tons and the capacity of tree-grown natural rubber produced on rubber plantations is approximately 8.0 million metric tons.”
Abundance of that magnitude was certainly not the case during World War II after the supply of natural rubber was cut off and the Asian plantations were occupied. According to the International Rubber Control Committee, production of plantation rubber in 1940 stood at 1,390,469 metric tons, far short of what it is today but gigantic when compared to synthetic rubber production back then.
In 1942, the world’s synthetic rubber industry, with one exception, was just getting off the ground. The United States, for example, manufactured a mere 3,300 metric tons in 1941. The German rubber industry, whose scientists had been experimenting with synthetic rubber since the early 1900s, was the exception. It produced 70,000 metric tons in 1941, which was still a pittance in comparison to natural rubber production that year.
“People everywhere can thank the world synthetic rubber industry’s amazing progress during and after WW II for the copious capacity that exists today,” McGraw said. “The most striking example of progress occurred in the United States where, thanks to a government-financed program, 15 Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) plants and two butyl rubber factories were constructed. As a result, by 1945 yearly production had jumped from the 3,300 metric tons in 1941 to more than 830 thousand metric tons.”
The growth and the sophistication of the synthetic rubber industry since the mid ‘40’s can only be described as phenomenal, McGraw pointed out. “Today,” he said, “it is completely global and international trade is vigorously pursued. That, plus the available capacity, should eliminate the possibility of a rubber shortage ever developing again—in war or in peace.”
The IISRP is an international not-for-profit association with 49 corporate members domiciled in 22 countries producing 90% of the world’s supply of synthetic rubber.
