The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., held a seminar in association with the Surat Thani branch of the Rubber Authority of Thailand (RAOT) in December 2024 to help Thai natural rubber farmers improve the quality and productivity of their natural rubber.

The event involved fifty agricultural households from the Surat Thani region. The participants gained a deeper comprehension of the selection and planting of natural rubber seedlings, the purpose and impact of fertiliser application and the significance of keeping foreign materials out of natural rubber. Additionally, fertiliser created using RAOT's specialised knowledge was given to each participating family. For a year, the farmers who attended the seminar will submit rubber samples to Y.T. Rubber's programme, which tracks changes in the physical characteristics of natural rubber as a result of fertiliser usage or lack thereof and the effects of seasonal variations on trees chosen for the survey. Yokohama Rubber's ongoing involvement in this seminar event, which has already taken place eight times since 2020, is deeply appreciated by RAOT.

Yokohama Rubber and RAOT signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in January 2020 to work together to help Thai natural rubber producers financially and to enhance traceability to guarantee the natural rubber supply chain's transparency and stability. Yokohama Rubber's ‘Procurement Policy for Sustainable Natural Rubber’ serves as the foundation for the MOU and the activities that fall under it.

In September 2021, Yokohama Rubber, a founding member of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), updated its ‘Procurement Policy for Sustainable Natural Rubber’ and is stepping up its cooperation with GPSNR initiatives. The Procurement Policy's ‘Support for suppliers, including small-scale farmers and other parties involved in the supply chain’ premise is reflected in the recent seminar event in Thailand. Additionally, Yokohama Rubber is working to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the UN has approved. The Yokohama Rubber Group is encouraging the purchase of sustainable raw materials, such as natural rubber, as part of these initiatives.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has released its Monthly NR Statistical Report for February 2025.

A statement from the organisation says that although NR (natural rubber) prices fluctuated significantly this month, they were nevertheless on the rise as compared to the prior month. The market's upward trend may be attributed to a number of important variables, including the US tariff policies, the EUDR's deferral and the robust demand from the tyre sector.

The report further highlights that China saw a spike in demand after the holidays, which was fuelled by an increase in downstream tyre manufacturing. According to recent reports from ANRPC member nations (AMC), changes in India's 2024 production estimates are expected to contribute to a marginal 0.4 percent rise in worldwide NR output in 2025 over 2024. Furthermore, the 2025 demand prediction indicates a modest increase of 1.7 percent.

GRP Limited has commenced commercial crumb rubber production at its new manufacturing unit in Solapur, Maharashtra.

The company invested approximately INR 250 million in the new facility, with funding sourced from borrowings ( INR 180 million ) and internal accruals ( INR 70 million ). The new unit has an annual production capacity of 31,875 metric tonnes of crumb rubber.

According to the filing to the BSE, the new manufacturing facility is strategically positioned to meet growing demand across various sectors, including reclaim rubber, tyre pyrolysis, tyre manufacturing, road surfacing and rubber goods production.

Located in the MIDC Industrial Area in Chincholi, Solapur, the unit began commercial production on  24 March  2025. The facility represents a significant expansion for GRP Limited, with the company noting that it is a new manufacturing location with no existing production capacity.

Covestro, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components, has announced that it will open an automated laboratory for optimising coating and adhesive formulations to provide better support to its customers.

Formulations for coatings and adhesives including Covestro binders and crosslinkers will be tested in the new facility. Properties like hardness, adhesion, opacity, gloss or durability are guaranteed by their astute selection. The qualities of the finished product are determined by the mix of these formulas, which usually include seven to 15 components. Standard formulas are typically employed due to the large number of conceivable combinations that arise. The computer-aided design of test series and automation have also made it possible for the new laboratory to conduct longer test series.

The new facility can operate 24/7 with a goal to conduct tens of thousands of tests annually. In terms of quantity, diversity, accuracy and testing speed, this establishes a new benchmark. A significant quantity of structured data is produced by the automated laboratory. As a result, the body of information regarding formulation options and contributing factors will expand quickly. To further enhance formulations, the gathered data is assessed using specialised machine learning algorithms in conjunction with measurement data from previous experiments. In order to create a self-learning system, artificial intelligence is also employed to forecast future experiments based on property goals and concurrently validate them in the automated laboratory.

Apart from creating 1K and 2K systems based on water and solvent, the automated laboratory also conducts a variety of material tests on the applied films, formulations and raw materials. To replicate product use under application settings, application can even be conducted in a lab setting with varying climates. The quick transfer of created samples to more specialised testing labs is another benefit of Covestro's ongoing laboratory digitisation. This facilitates the addition of market-specific test findings to the datasets and speeds up the identification of pertinent relationships.

Thomas Büsgen, head of the laboratory, said, "With our automated laboratory, we can work together with our customers on the future of coatings and adhesives. Because it operates almost completely autonomously and learns from our existing knowledge and data lake as well as newly generated data, it makes the process of optimising and developing formulations many times more efficient and precise. This allows us to optimise existing formulations faster or even develop completely new formulations for and together with our customers. We can say: we are reaching a new level of modern research.”

Martin Merkens, Head of Sales & Market Development EMLA in Covestro's Coatings and Adhesives business entity, said, "Our new automated laboratory gives us more possibilities for testing formulations. It relieves our specialised laboratories of their standard tasks and can analyse samples more systematically. This allows us to focus our expertise and experience even more on customer-specific topics or try approaches we couldn't have implemented otherwise. This will particularly help us in the area of circular economy: Alternative raw materials, for example bio-based or recycled materials, can be tested faster and evaluated for their properties in the final product.”

Covestro has successfully completed the modernisation of its TDI (Toluene Diisocyanate) plant in Dormagen, Germany. The facility was formally commissioned by Covestro as it unveiled its new goal of boosting production energy efficiency during an event attended by over 60 visitors from the commercial, political and personnel sectors, including Oliver Krischer, North Rhine-Westphalia Environmental Minister.

By using 80 percent less energy than traditional methods, the modernised plant reduces CO2 emissions by 22,000 tonnes annually. This is made possible by a new reactor that is over 20 metres high and weighs more than 150 tonnes. It produces steam using the reaction energy that is created. Covestro began the modernisation process in the summer of 2023. Over 3.5 kilometres of new pipes, over 14 kilometres of cables and hundreds of new pieces of equipment, valves and monitoring devices were placed throughout the facility. Through its federal subsidy programme for energy and resource efficiency, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has provided assistance for this modernisation.

The company targets a 20 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from energy use per tonne of product by 2030 compared to 2020, underlining energy efficiency as a key component in reaching operational climate neutrality by 2035. With a 300,000-tonne-per-year capacity, the Dormagen TDI facility stands as a shining example of how to successfully convert current manufacturing facilities to be more energy-efficient.

Dr Philip Bahke, Head of the North Rhine-Westphalia Site Network, said, "The successful completion of this project shows that climate protection and competitiveness can go hand in hand. The modernised plant sets new standards in energy efficiency and underlines our path toward climate-neutral production. In light of persistently high energy costs, the project significantly strengthens the competitiveness of TDI production in Europe. My special thanks go to the entire project team, who professionally implemented this complex modernisation during ongoing operations."

Dr Christine Mendoza-Frohn, Head of Sales Performance Materials for the EMEA and LATAM regions, said, "In Dormagen, we operate Europe's largest TDI production plant. With the successful modernisation, we can now offer our customers TDI with an even better carbon footprint. This supports our customers in achieving their own sustainability goals and strengthens our position as a reliable partner for climate-neutral and circular solutions."