Tyrexpo Asia 2015 sets fresh records
The three-day World Rubber Week, organised by SingEx Exhibitions, in partnership with International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) and Singapore Exchange (SGX), at Singapore EXPO concluded on March 26 on a highly satisfactory note. The event attracted over 5,000 rubber industry players from 109 countries.
“Asia is the focal point of the world’s rubber industry, which is at a crossroads today. We are pleased to be working with our partners – IE Singapore, IRSG & SGX – to offer a holistic platform that gives participants and the visitors a multi-dimensional perspective of the entire value chain,” said Aloysius Arlando, Chief Executive Officer, SingEx Holdings.
“We found the World Rubber Week extremely relevant to our business given our specific focus on the tyre and rubber industry. We see the event as a great platform to get more exposure for LMC Automotive and make those critical connections with potential customers and partners from around the region,” said Mr. Pete Kelly, Managing Director, LMC Automotive.
The World Rubber Week was the ideal platform to gather intelligence on the latest insights, outlook and opportunities in the business environment and various market segments of the rubber industry.
Mr. Sunam Sarkar, President & Chief Business Officer, Apollo Tyres, said: “The World Rubber Summit is a great forum to meet all relevant stakeholders in the industry, and hear their perspectives on key trends and issues. One key take-away is how we can and must leverage innovations in sustainability and technology to drive the rubber industry to greater heights in the future.”
Chinese domination at Tyrexpo Asia
Asia continued to be the region to focus on for the tyre industry. Out of the world’s top 75 global tyre makers today, 49 are from Asia. Owing to the growing population of vehicle fleet, with China representing the strongest growth at almost nine percent per annum, demand for rubber in Asia from the tyre market is enormous. For many tyre players, Tyrexpo Asia is the ideal platform for tyre manufacturers to showcase their wares. Out of the over 250 exhibitors, Chinese companies dominated the show. From India too leading firms like Apollo, Ceat, JK, BKT, Elgi Tread, Pelican, etc., had their major presence.
“Stamford Tyres is a Singapore-brand and Tyrexpo Asia is our home-show, and probably the most important one in the season for us. It gives us an opportunity to reinforce our relationship with existing customers by showing them our headquarters and operations here. At the same time, we’ve had a few new leads from other parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It’s a great place to showcase the new designs and products our Thai factory has come up with to customers old and new,” said Mr. Pat Berriman, Senior Vice President (Sales & Marketing), Stamford Tyres International.
“Tyrexpo Asia is the right event to meet all our Asia Pacific customers in one place. It provides the ideal platform to showcase our new products developed for this region. This year we were very pleased to unveil our largest OTR all-steel radial tyre, the 27.00 R49, and the response has been very positive,” said Mr. Arvind Poddar, Chairman & Managing Director, Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (BKT).
Paving way for regional trading hub in Asia
The Rubber Exchange Forum, a workshop on the educational and technical aspects of rubber trading, covered an overview of the history of the rubber market in Asia, an introduction to rubber futures contracts and a perspective on trading rubber futures.
The speakers highlighted that two rubber futures (RSS3 and TSR20) offered on the Singapore Exchange provide market participants with a reliable pricing basis as a point of reference for their physical cargo and to manage price risks. Delegates also learnt what trade finance is in the banking world, how it works, how it applies to the rubber industry; and the requirements and responsibilities that go with it.
Dr. Tom James of the Renovatio commodity and energy hedge fund, observed: “The Rubber Exchange Forum has attracted a large crowd, which clearly shows that there is a lot of interest in the market developments. There are exciting new developments in the Asian rubber market today, including the potential development of Singapore as a regional production neutral trading hub, plus the first signs of the opening up of the China commodity futures market to international traders via the Shanghai free zone. The opening up of the China market will be a big positive for the Singapore trading hub due to increased arbitrage trading activity being made possible for more market participants.”
The next edition of World Rubber Week will be held in 2017.