As a traditional manufacturing and processing industry, the tire industry is an important industrial sector in the development of the national economy. In the process of the development of the tire industry, a large amount of resources and energy investment is required, and the technological progress of the industry has a strong driving force for the growth of the industry, and the industrial development is closely related to the downstream automobile industry. Specifically, the development characteristics of the tire industry are mainly reflected in the following four aspects:
(1) High dependence on resources
The tire industry uses rubber as the main raw material, and carbon black, skeleton materials and rubber additives are used as auxiliary processing and production, and the cost of raw materials accounts for a high proportion of the total cost of tire production, resulting in the overall development of the tire industry is highly dependent on rubber, oil and other resources. Raw material costs account for more than two-thirds of the total tire production costs, up to 69 percent, while other costs account for only 31 percent. In the breakdown of raw material costs, the cost of rubber raw materials accounts for 50% of the total cost of tire production, of which the cost of natural rubber accounts for about 37%, the cost of synthetic rubber accounts for about 13%, and the cost of raw materials such as cord, carbon black and steel wire accounts for about 19% of the total cost of tires.
Natural rubber is made from the latex of natural rubber trees, because natural rubber trees have extremely high requirements for the natural environment, the planting area is mainly distributed in the north and south latitudes of 10 °, the planting area is very limited, resulting in the relative scarcity of natural rubber resources, the global natural rubber production capacity is seriously insufficient, and it is difficult to meet the growing demand for natural rubber. Therefore, the high dependence on the world's scarce natural rubber resources has caused the development of the tire industry to be directly affected by the fluctuation of natural rubber production capacity and price. In addition, because synthetic rubber, carbon black and other raw materials are mainly made from petroleum, steel wire is obtained from iron ore, therefore, the development of the tire industry also has a high dependence on oil, iron ore and other resources, oil, iron ore and other resources The price of small adjustments can cause large fluctuations in the production cost and product price of the tire industry.
(2) High energy consumption
The tire industry is a huge energy consuming industry. From the initial raw material processing to the production of the product, to the final product use, a large amount of high-carbon fossil energy is consumed. First of all, most of the main raw materials of the tire industry come from petrochemical energy, including synthetic rubber, carbon black, nylon fiber and other petroleum cracking products, of which about 70% of the raw materials of synthetic rubber come from petroleum, in addition, in the refining process of petrochemical energy and natural rubber, it also needs to consume a lot of coal, electricity and other energy. At present, the tire industry's consumption of synthetic rubber has accounted for more than half of the world's total synthetic rubber output, and the tire industry has become one of the main consumption industries of the upstream petrochemical industry. Secondly, in the production and processing process of tire products, such as mixing, vulcanization and other process links, are inseparable from coal, electricity and water and other energy to provide power guarantee, at the same time, due to the volume and quality of tire products are larger, increase the transportation cost of the tire industry, so that tire products consume a huge amount of fuel in the transportation link. Finally, tire products consume a lot of energy in the use process. Tire products are mainly used in automobiles, although the engine is the main component of automobile fuel consumption, but the proportion of tire products in automobile fuel consumption can not be ignored. According to the experimental measurement, when a car is driving at a speed of 100 km/h, the amount of fuel consumed to overcome the rolling resistance of the tires accounts for 20% of the total fuel consumption of the car; In trucks, the proportion can reach 30% or more, which means that tires account for more than one-fifth of a car's fuel consumption.
(3) Strong driving force of technology
The processing and production of tire products is realized through the operation of related machinery and equipment, so the technological progress of the industry is very obvious for the development of the tire industry and the improvement of product quality. On the one hand, with the improvement of global information technology, mechanical and electrical technology, automation technology and other scientific and technological levels, the proportion of enterprises applying fully automated production lines and production technologies in the tire industry has increased significantly, which has greatly driven the overall production efficiency of the tire industry, and accelerated the pace of promoting cleaner production, energy saving and consumption reduction in the industry. On the other hand, technological progress has a significant impact on the improvement of tire product quality. Taking radial tires as an example, for every 20%-30% reduction in the rolling resistance of radial tires, the fuel saving of the vehicle can reach 2%-4%, the mileage can be increased by 35%, and the CO2 emissions per 100 kilometers can be reduced by about 400g.
(4) Close connection with the automobile industry
As the main downstream industry sector of the tire industry, the automobile industry is closely related to the development of the tire industry. For example, among the rubber raw materials consumed by the automobile industry, the rubber consumption used in tire manufacturing accounts for about 60%, and the rubber consumption of other rubber products accounts for about 40%. The tire carries the full weight of the car, not only to ensure the ride comfort and driving stability of the car, but also to improve the traction, braking and passability of the car, which plays an extremely important role in the car. In terms of volume growth, with the gradual expansion of the global automobile industry, the scale of the tire industry has grown rapidly. From 2005 to 2012, global tire sales increased from 12.27 billion to 15.56 billion, with an annual growth rate of nearly 4%. From the perspective of quality improvement, with the continuous improvement of people's requirements for the safety, comfort, fuel saving, low noise, wet slip resistance and other performance requirements of automobiles, it has pointed out a specific direction for the development of the tire industry, and guided the tire industry to accelerate the pace of technology research and development and promotion in new materials, new processes, energy saving, intelligence, and greening.