Natural rubber

Latex tapped from Hevea trees: an elastic polymer for tyres that synthetic rubber has never fully replaced.

Fibres & forest · No. 105

• Not on a critical list
• HHI 1,597 · moderately concentrated

Smuggled Amazon seeds became Asia's rubber plantations, and synthetic rubber still cannot fully replace them in truck and aircraft tyres.

Chart: Illustration: Natural rubber

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Hevea is an Amazon tree; seeds smuggled to Kew in 1876 founded Asia's plantations. Trees grow for years before tapping, then yield latex for decades. Output was 14.83 Mt in 2024.

Three things to know

1. Natural rubber output nearly tripled, from 5.23 Mt in 1990 to 14.83 Mt in 2024.
2. Before Pearl Harbor, natural rubber was the single largest US import, and Japan's conquests cut off 90% of it.
3. Its strength and low heat build-up make it essential for truck, aircraft and radial tyres, where synthetics fall short.

The journey

1. 1 PlantationHevea trees on estates and smallholdings
2. 2 TappingLatex tapped from the bark
3. 3 CoagulatingSet into sheets, lumps or concentrate
4. 4 ProcessingPressed into TSR20 blocks or RSS sheets
5. 5 VulcanisingCompounded and cured with heat
6. 6 TyresTyres, gloves, hoses and footwear

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