China holds close to 29 percent of the world's synthetic rubber production capacity, more than any other country, and the buildout behind that position is accelerating rather than slowing. Sinopec, China's largest producer, reported synthetic rubber output of 804,000 tonnes in the first half of 2025, up 18.6 percent year on year and the fastest growing segment among its major chemical product lines. Behind that growth sits an expanding butadiene base, the key monomer for the styrene butadiene rubber and polybutadiene rubber that go into tire treads, sidewalls, and inner liners. For tire makers everywhere, what happens inside China's petrochemical complexes is now a direct input into global feedstock economics, not a side story to the natural rubber market.
Tracking that shift at the monomer level is now a standing part of how buyers manage raw material exposure. See how this fits into a broader sourcing program in Radial Insights' Procurement Intelligence practice.
Figure 1. China's Share of Global Synthetic Rubber Capacity, 2018. Source: Xu et al., "Current Status and Prospects of High-Performance Synthetic Rubber in China," Strategic Study of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2020.
A Concentrated but Fragmented Producer Base
According to a 2020 industry survey published in the Strategic Study of Chinese Academy of Engineering, China's synthetic rubber capacity stood at 5.93 million tonnes per year in 2018, spread across 50 manufacturers and equal to 29 percent of the 20.42 million tonne global total, the largest national share anywhere. That capacity splits into a four way structure: Sinopec and private domestic enterprises each hold about 29 percent, foreign and Taiwan funded producers hold 22 percent, and PetroChina holds 20 percent. The split follows product specialization. Sinopec has concentrated on polybutadiene rubber and styrenic block copolymers, PetroChina leads in emulsion styrene butadiene rubber, domestic private producers focus on butyl and isoprene rubber, and foreign funded plants specialize in EPDM and nitrile rubber.
Figure 2. China's Synthetic Rubber Producer Landscape, by Capacity Share. Source: Strategic Study of Chinese Academy of Engineering, 2020, based on 50 Chinese manufacturers.
That same research places tire grade materials, functionalized solution polymerized SBR, neodymium catalyzed cis polybutadiene rubber, and halogenated butyl rubber, at 60 percent of total synthetic rubber consumption in China, the largest end use category by a wide margin. Sealing, waterproofing, adhesive, and cable applications absorb another 21 percent, with specialty rubbers for marine, rail, and aerospace uses making up the balance. Tire demand is, in other words, the single largest force acting on China's synthetic rubber capacity planning.
A full producer by producer capacity breakdown, mapped against Radial Insights' wider manufacturer taxonomy, is available in the Company Summary (CSA) database.
The Butadiene Buildout Behind the Rubber
Synthetic rubber capacity cannot expand faster than the butadiene supply that feeds it, and that feedstock base has been growing quickly. China's butadiene production capacity reached 1.992 million tonnes per year in 2025, an 11.16 percent increase year on year, with new units from Yulong Petrochemical and Jilin Petrochemical entering trial operation during the year. Four additional butadiene units totaling 620,000 tonnes per year are scheduled to start up in 2026. PetroChina's Daqing Petrochemical site already runs 160,000 tonnes per year of butadiene rubber capacity, and the company's Jilin Petrochemical unit has a 50,000 tonne per year butadiene rubber addition under environmental impact review with the Jilin Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment.
Figure 3. China's Butadiene Capacity Buildout, 2024 to 2026. Source: Mysteel commodity market data, cited in industry trade reporting.
What Sinopec's Numbers Show
Sinopec's preliminary first half 2025 results, released on July 24, 2025, put synthetic rubber output growth ahead of every other major chemical product line the company reports, including synthetic resin, up 12.8 percent, and ethylene, up 16.4 percent, while synthetic fibre output actually declined 5.1 percent. That divergence is a reasonably direct signal of where the company sees demand strength. Sinopec has held the position of the world's largest synthetic rubber producer since 2023, when its annual output passed 1.8 million tonnes, ahead of Arlanxeo, PetroChina, Sibur, and Kumho Petrochemical, which round out the global top five.
Figure 4. Sinopec Synthetic Rubber Output, First Half 2024 vs First Half 2025. Source: Sinopec preliminary performance data, 24 July 2025, as reported by European Rubber Journal.
Rank | Producer | Headquarters | Notable data point |
1 | Sinopec | China | World's largest producer since 2023, over 1.8 million tonnes of output that year |
2 | Arlanxeo | Netherlands | Joint venture between Lanxess and Saudi Aramco |
3 | PetroChina | China | Leads China in emulsion SBR. Daqing site alone has 160,000 t/yr of BR capacity |
4 | Sibur | Russia | Major regional supplier to Eastern Europe and Central Asia |
5 | Kumho Petrochemical | South Korea | Leading East Asian producer alongside its Chinese joint ventures |
Table 1. Top Five Global Synthetic Rubber Producers. Source: European Rubber Journal, citing Sinopec preliminary performance data, July 2025. Compiled by Radial Insights.
What This Means for Tire Makers and Buyers
China's tire production itself gives a sense of scale. Cumulative tire output ran to 1,103.115 million units across January through November 2025, up 0.6 percent year on year, while the operating rate for all steel radial truck and bus tires climbed to around 62 percent in 2025 from 59 percent in 2024, a sign that utilization is recovering even as overall unit growth stays modest. That combination, rising synthetic rubber output, an expanding butadiene base, and improving tire plant utilization, points to a domestic feedstock system that is becoming less dependent on imported monomer and more able to absorb swings in natural rubber pricing by shifting blend ratios toward SBR and BR.
For global tire makers and compounders sourcing synthetic rubber out of China, the near term picture is one of expanding, increasingly domestically integrated supply. Sinopec and PetroChina's combined roughly 49 percent share of national capacity, backed by their own butadiene units, gives buyers two large, vertically integrated counterparties with visibility into feedstock costs that smaller private producers do not have. At the same time, a producer base this concentrated in two state owned groups carries its own risk: pricing and allocation decisions inside Sinopec and PetroChina's chemical divisions will increasingly set the reference point for synthetic rubber costs not just in China but for any tire plant, anywhere, that competes with Chinese made tires or sources SBR and BR out of the country.
Teams evaluating what that concentration means for supplier consolidation and counterparty risk can find deeper coverage in Radial Insights' Strategy and M&A Intelligence practice.
The direction is clear enough. Butadiene capacity is being added faster than at any point in recent years, Sinopec's synthetic rubber output is growing faster than its other core chemical lines, and tire grade materials already account for the majority of what China's synthetic rubber industry produces. Buyers who track capacity additions at the monomer level, not just headline rubber output, will see feedstock cost shifts before they show up in quoted prices.
Buyers looking to build that kind of monomer level tracking into a formal hedging program can start with Radial Insights' Raw Material Price Hedging Strategy consulting engagement.
This analysis is part of Radial Insights' ongoing coverage of the global tire and rubber supply chain.
Frequently Asked Questions
China held roughly 29 percent of global synthetic rubber production capacity in 2018, the largest national share of any country, spread across 50 domestic manufacturers according to the Chinese Academy of Engineering's Strategic Study.
Sinopec and PetroChina lead the market, together accounting for roughly 49 percent of national capacity. Sinopec has been the world's largest synthetic rubber producer since 2023, while PetroChina leads specifically in emulsion styrene butadiene rubber.
Butadiene is the key monomer behind styrene butadiene rubber and polybutadiene rubber, the tire grade materials that make up 60 percent of China's synthetic rubber consumption. China's butadiene capacity grew 11.16 percent in 2025 to 1.992 million tonnes per year, with further additions scheduled for 2026, directly shaping how much tire grade rubber the country can supply.
Buyers gain access to an expanding, increasingly vertically integrated supply base, but pricing and allocation decisions inside two state owned groups, Sinopec and PetroChina, increasingly set the reference point for synthetic rubber costs worldwide.