Rubber Products
In
this field there are tree important manufacturing sectors
- pneumatics, rubber-technical goods and rubber footwear.
This industrial branch was developed from handicrafts, especially
manufacture of rubber based technical goods and rubber footwear
that existed even before World War I.
In
the period after the World War II this industrial branch was
the most propulsive industrial sector in Serbia, so that by
the end of the 80’s with about 20,000 of employees took part Hermes handbags
in about 55-60% of the total rubber industry production of
former Yugoslavia and performed export in the value of over
200 million $.
Some
important companies in the field of rubber industry were founded
even before the World War II such as TRAYAL from Krusevac
(founded in 1889 initially as the gunpowder factory), REKORD
from Belgrade (1925) TIGAR from Pirot (1935) and VULKAN
from Nis (1937). More important facilities built
lately are GUMINS from Novi Sad (founded in 1946), HIP-GIP
from Pancevo (1950), VITOJEVAC from Vrnjacka Banja (1956),
GID from Dimitrovgrad (1959), Zlatar from Nova Varos (1959),
BALKANBELT from Suva Reka (1961), GUMA from Ruma (1963), KOLUBARA
UNIVERZAL from Veliki Crljeni (1963), FADIP IFC from Becej
(1972), GUMAPLAST from Indjija (1977) and RUMA-GUMA from Ruma
(1981).
Should
be mentioned that presence of private sector in this industry
increased during the 90's, especially in the field of technical
goods manufacturing.
Also
should be added that some of above mentioned companies already
have been privatized during last 3 years. For example, the
newest Serbian rubber tires factory RUMA-GUMA was acquired
in 2003 by the company GALAXY TIRE & WHEEL (USA). This
same year the replica Breitling world-known company MICHELIN (France) became
a majority owner of TIGAR MH, the company for manufacture
of pneumatics which is a member of the Joint Stock Holding
TIGAR from Pirot.
Today’s
Serbian rubber industry shows a rather great development potential.
Already in 2004 it almost reached the historical record level
of foreign trade achievements since the value of export overcame
186.6 million €. The most successful exporter was TIGAR MH
which has exported tires and inner tubes in the value of nearly
80 million €.
Historical Development of
Production: Rubber Products
(by manufactured volumes
from 1976 to 2005, based on 1976=100%)
The
manufacture of tires and inner tubes for all kind of vehicles
is the most developed sector of Serbian rubber industry. The following quantities of these products were manufactured
by the local companies in 2004:
·
Tires
for passenger cars 6,250,000
pcs
·
Tires
for motorcycles and mopeds 78,000 pcs
·
Tires
for bicycles
460,000 pcs
·
Tires
for buses
134,000 pcs
·
Tires
for trucks
217,000 pcs
·
Tires
for motocultivators 84,000
pcs
·
Tires
for agricultural vehicles 371,000
pcs
·
Tires
for civil engineering vehicles 57,000 pcs
·
Tires
for industrial vehicles 14,000
pcs
·
Tires
for other vehicles 174,000
pcs
·
Inner
tubes for bicycles 4,790,000
pcs
· Inner tubes for all
other vehicles 2,360,000
pcs
Rather
well developed sector of local rubber industry is also the
manufacture of transportation and transmission belts with
production volume that reached almost 4.4 thousands tons in
2004.
Today's
orientation of the rubber industry in Serbia is spreading of production assortment and
compliance of the products quality with the requirements of
the world market, since it is Titleist irons clear that the dimensions of
domestic market are too small to absorb production of various
rubber goods by normal level of available production facilities
utilization. The Serbian
rubber industry export is already distributed mostly on Western Europe market, well known as a high quality
demand market.
