Now that cars and vehicles are an essential part of everyday life for the majority of people, the production and sale of automobiles has skyrocketed in recent years.
According to tyrepress.com, Ningxia Shenzhou Tire Co. Ltd. is planning to boost their tire production to match vehicle demand after breaking ground on a new tire plant in the city of Shizuishan in Ningxia Province, China.
Company representatives were quoted saying that this second phase in production capacity of the $1,072,850,000 project is destined for high-end markets in both Europe and the United States due to the quality of their high-performance tires.
“High-performance radial tyres [are] much better than bias tyres in terms of safety, comfort, energy-saving, environmental protection [and] are advocated and encouraged by the industrial policy of our government,” representatives from Ningxia Shenzhou said.
This huge-scale enterprise is designed for an output of 20.1 million units per year, including 10 million all-steel radial tires and 100,000 aviation tires. All-in-all, the plant, with a total investment of $1.65 billion, is expected to be completed by 2016 and in operation by 2017.
The plant is also projected to create about 2,000 new jobs, and generate an estimated $950 million each year.
China is apparently not the only Asian country expanding their tire production due to the steep demand for vehicles. ICIS reported that India produced 2.8 million vehicles just in October; a rise of 14.4% from the same period of the precious year.
The production of passenger vehicles rose by 296,359 units year on year. Smaller two wheel vehicles accounted for 80.3% of the total vehicle output, amounting up to 1.83 million units for the month.
Overall, domestic vehicle sales rose an estimated 13.9% year on year to 2.04 million units in October, even though exports were down by 5.56% at 289,309 units.
This high rate of production is a strong indicator of the prevalence of the chemical industry. Most of this is due to the use of polymers, such as acrylonitrile-butediene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), and nylon.
However, the most important factor in the production of their tires is styrene butadiene rubber (SBR).
SBR is a synthetic rubber mixture of two monomers, styrene and butadiene, which is derived from petroleum and acts as a replacement for natural rubber. It was created prior to World War II in 1933 by a German chemist Walter Bock and Edward Tschunkur; this prompted the U.S. to create the U.S. Synthetic Rubber Program to compete.
On average, every automobile currently in production contains about $3,297 worth of chemicals, according to the American Chemistry Council.