Firestone's Bill Niaura knows this: It is just not smart company to depend on a normal resource just...THE PROCESS OF GROWING AND HARVESTING RUBBER FROM TREES IS LABORIOUS. FROM THE TIME YOU PLANT THE TREE Information Technology TAKES FIVE OR SIX YEARS BEFORE ANY HARVESTING CAN BEGIN. SUBSEQUENTLY EVERY DAY FOR THE UPCOMING 20 TO 25 YEARS OF THE TREE'S LIFE IT HAS TO BE SAPPED.And where synthetics can be utilized, it takes a barrel of oil to create one tire from synthetic rubber, claims PanArdius' Michael Grossman, spokesman for a leading guayule research and develop business. "This might be why over the last about 20 many years the market share of artificial rubber features fallen from about 70% to 58%."The solution for finding a better rubber for tires, states Niaura, Firestone's director of brand new business development, is a low-water-using American shrub called guayule. Bridgestone Firestone hopes to alter that by starting a BioRubber process research center in Mesa, Arizona, this autumn. The new facility will complement the company's guayule research farm in nearby Eloy, which launched final September.Switching guayule into plastic isn't new. During World War II, the Japanese cut off the U.S.'s supply of Asian rubber, and guayule had been often utilized as a replacement. But after the war the U.S. burned the 25,000-acre crop. Since then the economics didn't justify the price once plastic became available again. "In the company globe, the analogy I utilize is petroleum," says Niaura. "If gasoline trades at $50 a barrel, the only way to make it work is to drill a hole in Texas. If, state, it's $70, you'll pay to get it out of the ocean. If it goes to $100, you'll invest in getting it away of Canadian sand." With rubber presently trading at around $2 a pound, it's now reached a price analogous to that $100-a-barrel level. There's small explanation to expect that to come straight down whenever soon.Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand make 70% of the world's plastic. The process of growing and harvesting rubber from woods is laborious. From the time you plant the tree it takes five or six years before any harvesting can start. Then every day for the next 20 to 25 many years of the tree's life it features to be sapped. With rising work costs and increased land values, rubber manufacturers are either shutting straight down or increasing their prices. In addition to the decrease in supply, there's an increase in demand from nearby behemoths Asia and Asia.YOU CAN'T GO away AND purchase GUAYALE SEEDS AT THE GARDEN CENTER," CLAIMS NIAURA. "WE HAVE TO MAKE SEEDS, PROCESS SEEDS, GET THE ACREAGE, GET SET FOR PLANTING--IT'S A LONGER TIME LINE, BUT IT'S A BIG Profit AT THE END OF THE DAY.That's why Firestone is so eager for other choices. The American-grown guayale is simple to develop and harvest. The processing is much more complicated, but Firestone views the extra backend work worth it. Guayale tires won't be sold for regular automobiles, which generally have artificial-rubber tires, but rather for heavy-duty applications such as mining automobiles, airplanes, and 18-wheel huge rigs.It's important to note that guayule won't displace hevea rubber in the global market, Grossman states. For the time being, it'll simply protect the shortfall, and in the long term allow the U.S. to fulfill up to 30% of its annual need.Firestone plans to have a first experimental guayale-rubber tire by the second half of 2015, but a commercial product isn't likely until the very early 2020s--not because of technology, but because of nature. "You can't go out and buy guayale seeds at the garden center," says Niaura. "We have to make seeds, procedure seeds, get the acreage, get prepared for planting--it's a long time line, but it's a huge victory at the end of the time."
