Deng Yali, President of the 9th Council of China Rubber Industry Association, on behalf of the 9th Council reported to the 10th Member Congress and the 10th Expanded Meeting of the Board of Directors held by CRIA on the work of the past four years and the suggestions on the key work in 2021.

Deng said that the four years of the current Council were basically in the same period as the 13th Five-Year Plan, which was an extraordinary four years in the process of industry development. In the past four years from 2016 to 2020, the 9th Council has united to guide the industry to correctly analyze and study the situation and tasks, difficult challenges and development opportunities. In accordance with the deployment requirements of the "Strategy for a Powerful Country in Rubber Industry" and "13th Five-Year Plan", the 9th Council has successfully completed the objectives and tasks set by the Council, the comprehensive competitiveness of the industry has stepped up a new stage, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Deng Yali summarized the work and achievements of the ninth Council from eight aspects.

1. Focusing on the operation and strengthening the support, we have continuously improved the economic scale and benefit of the industry.

Strengthen the statistical monitoring and analysis of the economic operation of the industry, timely analyze and guide the changes in economic operation, and organize and coordinate the self-discipline and supervision of the industry. Through the joint efforts of the whole industry, the quality and benefit of the economic development of rubber industry have been significantly improved.

Compared with 2016, 365 statistical enterprises of CRIA are counted in 2020, with 91 fewer. The sales revenue was 37.3 billion yuan, up 34%; the total profit was 22.2 billion yuan, up 70%; export delivery value was 110 billion yuan, up 26%.

Despite the impact of the major epidemic in a hundred years, the member companies economy has achieved a sustained and stable growth, with annual sales revenue increasing by 8.5%, total profit by 17.5% and export delivery value increasing by 6.5%.

Meanwhile, the concentration of industry has been significantly improved. In 2020, the top 10 enterprises in tire industry accounted for 68% of the statistical enterprises' sales revenue and 93% of the profits. Compared with the statistics of the total sales income of the top five enterprises in the three products of conveyor belt, rubber hose and V-belt, the proportion of conveyor belt is more than 1/3, the proportion of rubber hose is nearly 1/2, the proportion of V-belt and automobile rubber tube is 70% - 80%, of which, the proportion of V-belt of automobile accounts for 90%. The sales revenue of the top 10 enterprises in the tire industry rose from 81% at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan to 91% in 2020.

Among the 40 enterprises with rubber brake components, the top 10 enterprises with sales accounted for 45% of the total demand of domestic car supporting market. There are emerging bright enterprises with independent intellectual property technology and independent brand, forming a non-tire rubber product production base.

In 2019, 17 silica enterprises with annual output of more than 50,000 tons, with a total capacity of 1.69 million tons, accounting for 72% of the total national capacity, increased by 8.3% compared with the proportion in the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

There are 5 enterprises with annual sales of more than RMB 1 billion yuan of rubber chemicals, and the sales volume of the top 10 enterprises in 2020 reached 66%. The top 20 enterprises accounted for 84 per cent.

2. Promote structural adjustment and upgrade to high-end, brand and green

The whole industry has made great efforts to promote supply-side structural reform, guided and promoted the optimization of product structure in various links, solved the problems of unbalanced and uncoordinated industry development, high-end capacity shortage, low-end excess, and non-matching of main equipment accessories, and supported the promotion of product grade, product variety, new product consumption and increased product added value, and promoted the product industry to move to the middle and high end.

In the past four years, the whole industry eliminated over 50% of the low and medium-level backward production capacity, high-efficiency energy-saving and environmental protection products with high-tech content and high added value, intelligent products with modern electronic information technology, and the market share of medium and high-end products with high security performance has been expanding, and the quality and brand competitiveness have been significantly improved.

According to the incomplete statistics of the association, the tire industry has withdrawn nearly 70 million backward production capacity in four years, with rapid development of medium and high-end tires without inner tube, wide section, large rim, wear resistance, wet sliding resistance and low noise. The radialization rate of automobile tire has reached 94.5%, which is in line with the international level. The proportion of all steel tubeless tires reached 55%, and became the leading product. The flattening rate of semi-steel passenger tire has been increased rapidly, reaching 50%.

Radial motorcycle tires and multifunctional steel-wire motorcycle tires (electric motorcycle tires) have achieved zero breakthroughs, and the percentage of tubules motorcycle tires increased from 9.8% to 24%. Inflatable bicycle tires account for 15% of total bicycle tire production and the high-quality bicycle tire accounts for nearly 20%. The butylation rate of inner tube increased from 56% to 75%. Puncture-resistant, foldable, tubeless bicycle tires and radial motorcycle tires, semi-hot melt and full-hot melt high-quality, high-performance motorcycle tires that meet the technical capabilities and equipment requirements of extreme sports have filled the gap.

Compared with 2015, the output of steel cord, solid woven flame-retardant, light rubber conveyor belt and other high-tech products accounted for 49% of the total output of rubber conveyor belts in 2020, with sales volume accounting for over 65%, increasing by 11% and 20% respectively; The yield of nylon and polyester rubber conveyor belt was 37%, increasing by 7.7%. The emergence of high-tech products, such as low rolling resistance steel-cord rubber conveyor belt, environmental protection type steel-cord flame retardant rubber conveyor belt, TPE-cover solid woven flame-retardant conveyor belt, aramid fabric rubber conveyor belt, large-dip fabric solid woven flame-retardant rubber conveyor belt, high wear-resistant fabric solid woven flame-retardant rubber conveyor belt and low-smoke and low-toxic fabric flame-retardant rubber conveyor belt, have further improved the quality of the industry products to meet the market demand.

The rubber products industry uses simulation technology to realize the positive development, so that high-end rubber products for high-speed rail, national defense, automobiles, and shock absorption industries can be localized.

The consumption of super steel wire in framework material industry increased from 3-4% to 28%, which replaced ordinary steel wire and high-strength steel wire, and improved the product performance.

The application of the silica enterprises has been further cultivated and subdivided, forming a "product tree", mainly including precipitation hydrated silica for rubber and non-rubber industries.

Spring gas sleeve mold, multi-segment mold, vacuum pump die set and other new molding development and manufacturing, have been gradually becoming a powerful tool for the market competition of molding enterprises. Laser processing and 3D printing have become the new trend of tire mold development.

The building machine of all-steel engineering radial tire has reached the advanced level in the world and meets the needs of the development of engineering tire in China.

Rubber chemicals adjusted the product structure and achieved remarkable results in replacing toxic and harmful products. The annual output of pre-dispersed masterbatch has increased from 30,000 tons to 100,000 tons, and its proportion has increased from 2.9% to 8.5%; the green rate of products has reached over 92%. New products such as high-content antioxidant TMQ, accelerator TBSI, environmentally friendly rubber impregnant, organic zinc and other new products have been successfully developed. Continuous insoluble sulfur has broken the foreign monopoly and realized industrialization.

Other major rubber products have shown a trend of continuous and steady growth, and the product structure has been continuously optimized.

3. Driven by innovation, new product research and development continue to make new progress

The annual R&D expenditures of leading companies in various rubber industries basically exceed 3% of sales revenue; the industry has newly established 18 national technology centers, 12 association technology centers, and 6 association signed laboratories, and built the first tire testing field in China. The industry innovation platform and innovation system construction, research and development and testing methods are becoming more and more complete, basic research and cutting-edge exploration are strengthened, and a batch of key core technologies have filled the gaps in many major products and equipment.

4. Significant results in energy conservation and emission reduction, and in-depth implementation of green development

The whole industry has strengthened environmental protection governance with unprecedented determination and strength to promote green development. Based on the green manufacturing and evaluation standard system, China Rubber Industry Association has formulated a green roadmap for industry development and a technical route of pollution prevention and control in the rubber product industry. The enterprise runs green design products, green raw materials, green factories, green supply chain and green technology throughout the whole process of production.

In 2016, CRIA launched the China Tire Label. By the end of 2020, 62 companies have registered information, and 28 companies have applied for 192 Chinese tire labels, totaling 1,056 specifications.

5. Major breakthroughs in intelligent construction and rapid growth of new development momentum

The association clearly put forward the strategic measures of intelligent manufacturing in the rubber industry and the road map to build a strong rubber industry. These four years have been four years in which the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and the industry’s economy have been deeply integrated, and breakthroughs have been made in the digital transformation of the industry. A number of tire companies have successively built smart factories and started to build smart factories abroad; a number of non-tire rubber products and raw material supporting companies have taken important steps in manufacturing processes and intelligent logistics transformation.

Leading enterprises in the industry have promoted the level of intelligence and product intelligence of R&D design, production, manufacturing, operation and management, and marketing services through information technology of "Cloud, Big, Things, Mobile, Intelligence" (cloud computing, big data, Internet of things, mobile Internet and artificial intelligence), and marched into high-end products and industrial chain. The integration of the rubber industry and the Internet has emerged as a new trend of a hundred flowers blooming. A number of enterprises have obtained the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects or "industrialization" integration and implementation of standard pilot enterprises. Digital networking and intelligentization have strengthened new momentum for the development of the industry.

6. Foreign cooperation has become deeper and international development has been steadily advancing.

The rubber industry actively responds to the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, deepens international capacity cooperation, and promotes enterprises to "go global", shifting from export-oriented products to integrated export of technology, capital, services, and operations.

In the past four years, more than a dozen tire companies have established R&D and manufacturing bases in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, America and other regions. The production and operation of overseas factories are in good condition, and they have become innovative, global, and information-based high-tech manufacturing with leading sales scale. Enterprises, and drive high-quality production capacity of machinery and equipment and raw materials into the international market. According to statistics, 29 overseas factories have been put into operation in China's rubber industry. The international development of rubber companies has continuously enhanced the influence and competitiveness of Chinese brands in the international market.

7. Strengthen industry orientation, adhere to standard guidance, and promote transformation and upgrading

The four years have been the most complex and uncertain four years of hot and difficult issues in the development of the industry. It is also the four years when the Council strengthened communication with the government, undertook policy and regulation research, reflected the situation to various management departments, formulated technical standards, strengthened industry orientation and policy guidance.

• Organize the compilation and completion of the industry's "13th Five-Year Plan" and "14th Five-Year Plan" development outline, strive to promote implementation, and lead the industry in high-quality development, strategic breakthroughs, green leap forward, and create the future.

• Reflect the industry situation to relevant national ministries and commissions, put forward policy recommendations, and strive for a policy environment for industry development.

• Actively participate in the formulation of policies and regulations, undertake a number of major research topics related to the development of the industry, and lead the development of the industry.

• According to the development needs of the industry and technological innovation trends, organize and formulate group standards with market vitality, and play the leading role of standards. China Rubber Association's "Tire Classification Standard", "Green Footwear Material Limited Substance Requirements", "Wear-resistant Fabric Solid Woven Flame-Retardant Conveyor Belt" and "Green Design Product Evaluation Technical Specification for Automobile Tires" have been awarded the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology's 100 group standard demonstration projects.