Glossary of rubber terms

The Rubber Economist Ltd

Accelerator: A compounding material used in small amounts with a vulcanising agent to increase the speed of vulcanisation.

Acrylic Rubber: A type of synthetic rubber based on methyl, ethyl, or other alkyl acrylates.

ADS: Air Dried Sheet.

ANRPC: Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries.

A-R: Asphalt Rubber.

Arbitrage: Simultaneous purchase and sale in two different markets in order to profit from price discrepancies.

Basis: The difference between futures and spot prices.

Bears: Those who expect price to decline.

Bias Tyres: Tyres made using ply cords which lie in a diagonal direction from bead to bead.

BR: Butadiene Rubber.

Brokers: Those who execute buying and selling orders of a customers for a commission.

Bulls: Those who expect price to increase.

Butadiene: It is the chief raw material for making many of the synthetic rubber.

Call: A period in which trading is conducted to establish the price for each futures month at a particular time.

Caoutchouc: French name for natural rubber.

Carbon-Black: Finely divided carbon used as reinforcing filer in rubber compounds..

Carcass: The fabric, cord, or metal reinforced section, or all three, of a rubber product as distinguished from the rubber tube, cover, or tread.

Carrying Charges: The cost of inventory over a period of time including storage, insurance and interest charges.

CFC: Common Fund for Commodities.

CFR: Cost and Freight.

CIF: Cost, insurance and freight.

CJCE: Central Japan Commodity Exchange.

Clearing House: The separate agency associated with a futures exchange through which futures contracts are offset or fulfilled and through which financial settlement is made.

Clones: A group of plants produced vegetatively from one stock plant and hence possessing similar genetic qualities.

Coagulation: Irreversible agglomeration of particles originally dispersed in a rubber latex.

Compound: An intimate admixture of a polymer with all the materials necessary for the finished article.

Concentrated Latex: Latex, the rubber content of which has been greatly increased by evaporation, creaming, filteration, or centrifuging.

Corner: The most widely-used form of manipulation, associated with pressure exerted by holders of long positions on the shorts as the latter attempt to close their positions. It is illegal to corner in futures markets.

Countertrade: Any contractual arrangement that binds the seller of goods or services to accept other goods or services as payment by the buyer.

CPE: Centrally planned economies.

CR: Polychloroprene Rubber.

Crepe Rubber: Any form of natural rubber marketed with the rough surface produced by passing the rubber through as series of mills with grooved rolls traveling at different speeds.

Cross Linking: Process of bridging individual rubber molecules through the formation of covalent chemical bonds between the rubber molecules.

Crumb Rubber: Vulcanised wasted rubber which has been ground down to a desired mesh size for addition to new compound as a filler. Also is called ground rubber.

Cup Lump: A blanket crepe rubber produced from the dries films and lumps of rubber found in the tapping cups at the beginning of the next tapping.

CV: Commercial Vehicle.

Depolymerised rubber (DPR): Natural rubber which has been reduced to n easy flowing consistency by prolonged mastication in the presence of peptizing agents.

Dipped Goods: Articles of manufactured rubber, usually thin-walled, made by dipping suitable forms into compounded latex, allowing the rubber to dry, vulcanizing the deposited coating, and removing the articles from the forms.

Direct trade: Business transacted directly between a producer and a consumer without trade intermediaries.

DRC: Dry rubber content - is the mass of rubber coagulated by acid from one hundred parts mass of latex.

EFP: Exchange for Physicals.

Elastomer: A macromolecular material, which at room temperature, is capable of recovering substantially in shape and size after removal of a deforming force.

Emulsion Polymerisation: The process of making synthetic polymers by free radical copolymerisation of an emulsion of a monomer or mixture of monomers.

EPDM: Ethylene Propylene Terpolymer.

Extrusion: The process of forcing out a plastic material through an orifice to obtain a material in continuous length of indefinite shape.

Field latex: Latex obtained from Hevea trees on tapping.

Field coagula: Latex autocoagulated on the tapping, collection cup and on the ground.

Foam Rubber: A cellular product made from liquid latex by beating air into it using various processes, which is gelled and vulcanised.

FOB: Free On board.

Forward Sale: The sale of commodities for delivery at a later date.

Fundamentals: The dynamic factors which comprise the supply and demand for a given commodity and their likely influence on its price.

Futures: Contracts for purchase and sale at an agree price of a fixed quantity and grade of commodities for delivery some time in the future on an organised exchange.

GDP: Gross Domestic Product.

Globalisation: A process which comprises two aspect namely: (1) that activities involved are increasingly carried out worldwide; and (2) that participants are increasingly interdependent.

GMP: Good Manufacturing Practice.

Granulated rubber: Particulate form of a raw or unvulcanised compounded rubber produced by the mechanical size reduction of baled or sheeted rubber using rotary cutters or other means

GRG: General Rubber Goods.

GRP: General Rubber Products.

Guarantee: In this type of contract the broker guarantees the solvency of the principals or the fulfillment of terms. Generally used when the principals do not wish to be known to one another.

Guayule: The rubber obtained from the guayule shrub, parthenium argentatium, of the natural order composite.

Hedging: A temporary purchase or sale of a futures contract by an inventory holder whether to offset the price risk arising from commitment in the physical market or to market profit from a favorable movement in the futures/spot basis.

Hevea: The genus of trees of the order Euphorbiaceae, the most important species of which is the Para rubber tree, Hevea Brasiliensis.

HP: High-Performance (tyres).

IIR: Butyl Rubber.

IISRP: International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers, Inc.

Injection Moulding: Method of moulding rubber articles by injecting the warm stock into a mould cavities.

IR: Isoprene Rubber.

IRCo: International Rubber Consortium Ltd.

IRRDB: International Research and Development Board

ISNR: Indian Standard Natural Rubber

IRSG: International Rubber Study Group.

ISO: International Standards Organisation.

JAMA: Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.

JIT: Just-in-Time.

Latex Thread: Rubber thread of circular section made by extruding compounded latex through glass nozzles into a coagulating bath of acid.

LDCs: Less Developed countries.

Liquidation: The closing out of a long position.

Locals: Individuals who trade on their own account.

Long Hedge: Hedging initiated by buying futures. This is also called a buying hedge.

Long Position: A future contract bought with the intention of later canceling it by a corresponding sale to profit from an increase in prices.

LTC: Long term contract.

Manufacturing Buying Agents: Representatives of the major rubber manufacturers in the primary markets.

Masterbatch: Homogeneous mixture of rubber and one or more materials in known proportions for use as raw material in the preparation of final compounds.

Monomer: A low molecular mass substance consisting of molecules capable of reacting with molecules to form a polymer.

Mooney Viscosity: Measure of the amount of mechanical work required on the raw rubber to give mixes with consistent rheological properties after plastication, compounding and mixing.

Moulding: A process of making rubber products by shaping in a mould.

NBR: Acrylonitrile Butadiene Rubber.

Nitrile rubber: A general term for the various copolymers of butadiene and acrylonitrile.

Normal Backwardation: The situation when the futures price exceeds the expected future spot price. If the latter is equal to the current spot prices, the current futures price will be below the current spot price. Also know as a normal or carrying charges market since the expected premium of distant futures to spot or nearby approximates carrying charges.

NR: Natural rubber.

OEM: Original Equipment (tyres)

Official Markets: Those markets which are organised and have authorities dealing in rubber trading.

Oil Resistance: Ability to withstand swelling by a specified oily liquid for a specified time and temperature.

Oligopoly: An oligopolistic industry contains a number sufficiently small so that the actions of any individuals seller have a perceptible influence upon his rivals.

OPEC: Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Open Market: Business transacted in international markets through market intermediaries.

Ordinary Contract: The type of contract in which the buyer and the seller know one another as distinct from a guarantee contract.

Option: An option allows an operator to buy or sell at an agreed price, a specific amount of a given commodity during a certain period of tim, but entails no obligation to do so.

PC: Passenger Car.

Perfect Competition: A market in which there are a large number of buyers and sellers all engaged in the purchase and sell of homogeneous commodity, with perfect knowledge of market prices and quantities, no discrimination in buying or selling, and perfect mobility of resources.

Perfect Hedge: Buying or selling hedges which result in neither profit nor loss.

Polybutadiene: Various polymers of 1, 3 butadiene.

Physical: The actual commodity which is sometimes refereed to as cash or actuals which can be bought or sold either spot or forward,

Polyisoprene: Polymerised isoprene - Naturally-occurring polyisoprene are natural rubber.

Polymer: A macromolecular material formed by the chemical combination of monomers having either the same or different chemical composition.

Polymerisation: A chemical reaction in which the molecules of a monomer are linked together to form large molecules, whose molecular mass is a multiple of the original substance.

Polyurethane: A synthetic rubber or resin prepared by the condensation of an organic isocyanate and a polyester or polyether.

Position Traders: Those traders who take a view of the general direction of a market and reap their reward accordingly. Also known as day traders.

Powdered rubber: Rubber usually prepared by discontinuous coagulation of latex or compounded latex by means of metal salts.

Priced Backward: Beginning with export prices to determine the farm-gate prices.

Primary Market: Markets providing services for, and covering , those activities associated with the transfer of ownership and the physical movement of a commodity from producer to the port of shipment.

Processing: A general term applied to the variety of operations to convert a raw elastomer into finished products.

Radial Tyre: Tyre manufactured by placing the body plycords perpendicular across the tread from bead to bead. In addition they have belt plies which run circumferentially around the tyre under the tread.

RAS: Rubber Association of Singapore.

REO: Rubber Estate Organisation.

Reclaim: The product resulting from the treatment of scrap vulcanised rubber in various operations whereby the fabric is destroyed, the rubber compound is recovered and made suitable for use in manufacturer of rubber goods.

Retreading: The fitment of anew wearing surface to a worn pneumatic tyre.

RAPRA: Rubber and Plastic Research Association

RMA: Rubber Manufacturing Association.

Rolling Resistance: The force required to maintain the advance of a rolling tyre.

RRI: Rubber Research Institute.

RRII: Rubber Research Institute of India.

RRIM: Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia.

RRIT: Rubber Research Institute of Thailand.

RRIV: Rubber Research Institute of Vietnam.

RSS: Ribbed Smoked Sheet - a form of plantation rubber prepared by coagulating latex and then dried with smoking.

RTA: Rubber Trade Association.

Rubber: A material capable of recovering from large deformations quickly and forcibly and can be, or already is, modified to a state in which it is essentially insoluble in boiling solvents.

SALB: South American Leaf Blight

SBR: Styrene Butadiene Rubber - most widely used synthetic rubber produced by the co-polymerisation of styrene and butadiene.

Scalper: A speculator who relies on experience to sense an increase in buying or selling pressures before it fully develops and trades accordingly.

Scrap Rubber: A term which generally applies to vulcanised rubber unfit for any other use than reclaiming or grinding to crumb rubber.

Selling Agents: Subsidiary offices of plantation groups and also specialist traders appointed by plantations companies.

Semi-Direct Trade: Purchase made in producing countries by representatives of consumers in centrally planned economies, as well as sales made in consuming countries by representatives o producers.

Short-Covering: Closing out a short position.

Short Hedge: Hedging initiated buy selling futures. Also called a selling hedge.

Short Position: To take out a contracts with the intention of later canceling it by a corresponding purchase, in the hope of profiting from a price decrease.

SICOM: Singapore Commodity Exchange.

Silicone Rubber: An elastomer of the silicone rubber.

SIR: Standard Indonesian Rubber.

SLR: Standard Sri Lankan Rubber.

SMR: Standard Malaysian Rubber.

Sole Crepe: Laminated pale crepe which has not been compounded and vulcanized, but finds use in the production shoe soles.

SPC: Statistical process control.

Speculation: Buying or selling in the expectation of arise or fall in price. Speculator who trade in the futures market and do not make or take delivery of physicals on maturity.

Spot Month: The first deliverable month for which a quotation is available on the futures market.

Spot sale: The sale of a commodity for immediate delivery. Sometimes called cash sale.

Spread: Where opposites positions are held simultaneously for different contact months for the same commodity or different commodities. Also known as a straddle.

Squeeze: Similar to a corner, the distinction being one of degree. It is not, per se, illegal.

SR: Synthetic rubber - a group of high molecular weight polymers, synthesized chemically, having physical properties somewhat similar to natural rubber.

SSR: Specified Singapore Rubber.

Stall Bull: An operator who went long in anticipation of a rising price which failed to materialise.

Stop-loss order: An order to buy only if the market advances to a specified level, or to sell if the market declines to a specified level.

STR: Standard Thai Rubber.

SVR: Standard Vietnam Rubber.

SUV: Sports Utility Vehicle.

Switching: Transferring an open position into a different delivery of the commodity.

Tapping: The operation of making a carefully-controlled incision in the bark of the Hevea tree to permit the latex to flow out.

Tender: The offer of a certain amount of commodity for shipment and shipment instruction.

Terminal market: Coves similar activities to the primary market from the ports of discharge to consumers’ factories.

TOCOM: Tokyo Commodity Exchange.

TSR: Technically Specified Rubber - this is the generic name for the scheme originally introduced in Malaysia.

TPE: Thermoplastic Elastomer - material capable of being repeatedly softened by increase of temperature and hardened by decrease of temperature.

TPNR: Thermoplastic Natural Rubber

UHP: Ultra High Performance.

ULP: Ultra-Low Profile (tyres).

USS: Unsmoked sheet.

Viscosity: The resistance of a material to flow under stress.

Vulcanisation: The process of linking rubber molecules together by chemical cross links. Vulcanisation is generally carried out by chemical reaction of sulphur, giving rise to mono or poly sulphide cross links. It improves the physical properties of rubber, more particularly the elasticity.

Wild Rubber: Rubber obtained from uncultivated trees, as distinguished from cultivated plantations.

Wire Cord: In modern pneumatic tyres the textile reinforcement in the form of steel wire constructed in the manner of cord fabric.

Yield Stimulation: The application of plant hormones to the bark of rubber trees, or of copper sulphate placed in holes bored in the trunk, can produce a consistent increase in yield without any damage to the tree or any deleterious effect on either the latex or the rubber produced from it.

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