SR industry "robust;" tire shipments down in 1st quarter. (Market Focus).While the worldwide synthetic rubber synthetic rubber: see rubber. industry's growth in the first quarter was "the most robust" since the first quarter of 2000, the North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. tire industry saw shipments decline by 3.5% for the first three months. Britt Theismann of the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers, said that overall worldwide shipments and production of SR for the first quarter of 2003 grew 3.9% over the fourth quarter of last year. "When comparing the first quarter of 2003 with the first quarter of 2002, the growth is even more significant at 8%," he said. He said all regions grew in shipments and production, with North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. and Western Europe Western Europe The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). recording the sharpest increases at 6.9% and 4.8%. respectively. In China, where growth has averaged more than 13% recently, quarter-over-quarter growth slowed to 3.4% in the first quarter. For individual elastomers, Theismann said automotive elastomers increased the most, with NBR NBR Number NBR Nightly Business Report (PBS show) NBR National Business Review (New Zealand weekly business newspaper) NBR National Bureau of Asian Research NBR National Board of Review up by 10.1% and EPDM EPDM Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Monomer EPDM Enterprise Product Data Management EPDM Ethylene Propylene Dimonomer (industrial/commercial piping/plumbing components) EPDM Engineering Product Data Management up 5%. After many quarters of decline, emulsion SBR SBR - Spectral Band Replication rose by 5.4%. Solution SBR grew 2.9% and BR was up 2%. The "other" category which includes butyl butyl /bu·tyl/ (bu´t'l) a hydrocarbon radical, C4H9. bu·tyl n. A hydrocarbon radical, C4H9. butyl a hydrocarbon radical, C4H9. and specialty elastomers, grew at a 6.5% rate. Theismann added that global inventories, which had reached a high of more than 64 days of supply in the second quarter of 2001, continued to decrease, dropping to 54 days of supply in the first quarter. Shipments in the tire industry in the first quarter were anything but robust as they slipped 3.5% compared to the first quarter of 2002. Figures from the Rubber Manufacturers Association show that while shipments to the original equipment market increased 1,4% to a little more than 17.5 million units, replacement tire shipments were 4.2% lower at 55.5 million units. Original equipment passenger tire shipments were off 0.3 and replacement passenger tire shipments were down 3.6% in the quarter. Shipments of OE light truck tires were up 6.9% while replacements were off 8.7%. U.S. tire report (1st quarter) Q1 Year Original equipment 03 17,578 -- 02 17,338 69,553 01 16,254 64,217 Replacement 03 55,527 -- 02 57,970 239,100 01 53,375 236,043 Exports (RMA only) 03 7,907 -- 02 8,642 34,505 01 8,474 33,405 Total shipments 03 81,012 -- 02 83,949 343,159 01 78,102 333,665 Production 03 62,685 -- 02 62,938 245,292 01 72,929 246,648 U.S. imports 03 25,985 -- 02 21,427 96,398 01 19,452 84,342 |
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