New electric car tires bet less on rubber trees and more on rare earths

China has completed tests of a synthetic rubber factory produced with rare-earth catalysts, a material considered strategic for electric car and truck tires, O Globo reported. Built by Dushanzi Petrochemical, a subsidiary of PetroChina, with support from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, the unit started operating on July 16 and will have a capacity of 100,000 tons per year.

The technology uses catalysts based on neodymium, a rare earth whose production is largely dominated by the Chinese. The country accounts for about 70% of the world’s extraction of these elements and for close to 90% of refining, and since 2025 it has required a prior license to export several of them.

The product of the new plant is a butadiene rubber, one of the main types of synthetic rubber used in the industry, known for its resistance to wear. In the version made with rare-earth catalysts, the material has greater mechanical strength, better performance at low temperatures, less heat generation during use, and greater tear resistance than that obtained with conventional catalysts, such as nickel.

Why electric cars are included in the bill

According to the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, these characteristics make the compound especially suitable for electric vehicle tires, which require stronger rubbers because of the additional weight of the batteries and the high torque of the motors, as well as heavy-duty vehicle applications.

The technology has also been industrially tested. Shandong Shenchi Petrochemical produced truck tires by replacing 50 percent of the natural rubber with isoprene rubber obtained from rare-earth catalysts. According to the China Rubber Industry Association Testing Center, the material has recorded a vulcanization rate equivalent to that of natural rubber and a basic performance superior to that of imported products.

A strategy that began in the 1950s

Synthetic rubber is produced mainly from petroleum derivatives, such as styrene and butadiene — unlike natural rubber, extracted from rubber trees. Research released by the Changchun institute indicates that the country began to invest in the area in the 1950s, due to the shortage of natural rubber and technological restrictions imposed by Western countries. In the 1960s, Chinese scientists published the world’s first study on the synthesis of cis-butadiene rubber with rare-earth catalysts. The partnership with Dushanzi to take the technology to an industrial scale has existed since 2006.

In a study published in 2020, researchers from the Sinopec Research Institute classified synthetic rubber as an “important national strategic resource”, used in sectors such as transportation, industry, defense and consumer goods. For them, the new route can expand domestic production, reduce the deficit of natural rubber and increase the country’s self-sufficiency.

The movement comes as the Brazilian tire industry loses ground to Asian imports. According to Anip, an industry association, imports reached 72% of the passenger and cargo tire replacement market in January 2026, against a national share that fell from 66% in 2021 to 28%.