ABSTRACT
This chapter examines key aspects of rubber consumption, looking first at major factors influencing demand and then at overall consumption patterns. A vital aspect of demand for rubber is that this is derived; elastomers are intermediate goods used in producing final consumer goods, of which they may only be one component. Tyres have always been prominent in using rubber, and despite a lessening share probably consume some 50 percent of all elastomer produced in the world today. Rubber goods industries in the previously socialist countries of Eastern Europe are subject in the 1990s to major structural adjustment pressures, in line with their huge political and economic changes. Japan also outperformed rivals in other tyre subsectors, including those for motor cycles, bicycles and agricultural machinery. These reviews of trends in key areas for rubber goods development illustrate how economic conditions interact with organizational and political aspects in determining actual industry progress.
