China’s 15th Five-Year Plan for Synthetic Rubber Unveiled: Differentiation, High-End Upgrade and Green Transition as Core Development Directions

Synthetic rubber industrial upgrading is directly linked to the raw material security and industrial chain stability of strategic emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, high-end equipment and aerospace. In May 2026, the 2026 Synthetic Rubber Industry Operation Analysis Conference & Seminar on the Release of the 15th Five-Year Development Plan for the Synthetic Rubber Industry was held. A number of industry experts and institutional representatives discussed the industry’s development path, and clarified that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period for China’s synthetic rubber industry, differentiation, high-end upgrading and green development will be taken as the core development directions, focusing on the upgrading demand of downstream application ends to promote the overall competitiveness of the industry.

Deepening Non-Tire Rubber Product Segments to Build a Differentiated Competition Landscape

Non-tire rubber products are a basic industry with a scale of hundreds of billions of yuan, featuring wide market coverage, strong demand resilience and high strategic value. Chen Minghang, Senior Engineer of the Science and Technology Innovation Center of Beijing Research & Design Institute of Rubber Industry Co., Ltd., pointed out that currently nearly 70% of global rubber products are used in the transportation sector, the overall industry capacity utilization rate is low, and homogenized competition is intensifying. In China’s non-tire rubber product sector, there are a large number of enterprises but weak overall strength, with prominent core technology shortcomings; technologies for products such as large-scale infrastructure seals and shock-absorbing rubber for special tracked vehicles still rely heavily on overseas suppliers.

Differentiated layout is fundamentally supported by breakthroughs in material technology. Industry insiders suggest that efforts should be focused on high-growth downstream sectors including electric vehicles, new energy, electronic information and aerospace, to tackle key material technologies and molding manufacturing technologies. Priorities will be given to core technologies such as high-temperature and high-pressure large-scale rotary sealing technology, special nanomaterial-reinforced fluororubber technology, wide-temperature-range high-frequency rubber shock absorption technology, and hydrogen energy sealing material technology. High-performance products such as ultra-high pressure and high-temperature oil and gas sealing materials, perfluoroether rubber and composite materials resistant to temperatures above 340℃, and sealing materials for ultra-high-speed motors will be developed to continuously expand application scenarios.

Differentiated technological achievements have been put into industrial application. Dayu Weiye (Beijing) International Technology Co., Ltd. has developed high-performance spray-set water-based rubber coating materials through technical research. The material can form a dense, continuous and complete rubber-like coating film with anti-tackiness and corrosion resistance. Its bonding strength with concrete base surfaces is not less than 0.6 MPa, and it can cover various special-shaped or complex base surfaces to solve the water channeling problem of building base surfaces. It also has super ductility, which can cope with leakage caused by structural stress deformation, settlement, expansion cracking, puncture and other issues.

Breaking Through High-End Sector Technologies to Increase Product Added Value

Product high-end upgrading is a key path to enhance the core competitiveness of the synthetic rubber industry chain. Zhu Hong, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Rubber Industry Association, stated that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the high-end upgrading process of China’s rubber industry continued to advance: large-size, flat and tubeless tires have become the mainstream of the market; high-end products such as extreme environment-resistant hoses, medical rubber products, industrial seals and shock absorption products have accelerated iteration; latex products have expanded their application scenarios to beauty, household and automotive fields. In terms of rubber machinery, breakthroughs have been made in large-capacity mixing equipment, electric vulcanizing machines and complete sets of giant engineering radial tire molding technologies; new materials such as bio-based carbon black, silica, rubber materials and rubber additives have gradually entered the stage of industrial application.

High-end breakthroughs require joint efforts in technology R&D and standard system construction. In terms of technology R&D, Zhang Enbo, Chief Engineer of Jiangsu Bosheng Medical New Materials Co., Ltd., said that pharmaceutical seals with halogenated butyl rubber as the main material are in direct contact with drugs, and need to meet multiple requirements such as sealing performance, safety, drug compatibility and functionality. With the rapid development of innovative drugs and biopharmaceutical industries, products such as cell therapy, mRNA vaccines and protein drugs have put forward higher requirements for packaging material performance under ultra-low temperature processes and irradiation processes. This promotes pharmaceutical seals to upgrade toward low extraction, high barrier, extreme condition resistance and precise adaptation. Meanwhile, recyclability, single material, bio-based, low VOCs and low-carbon processes have also become mandatory development guidelines for the industry.

High-end product standard system supports market access. Li Xiaoyin, Secretary-General of the Synthetic Rubber Sub-Technical Committee of the National Rubber and Rubber Products Standardization Technical Committee, proposed that it is necessary to establish and improve the standard system for new material products, focus on high-performance synthetic rubber and key bottleneck materials, and develop product standards for functionalized solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber, carboxylated nitrile rubber, ethylene propylene rubber, bio-based rubber and SEBS, so as to provide compliance basis for domestic high-end materials to enter aerospace, new energy vehicles, extreme environment and other fields.

Building a Sustainable Raw Material System to Promote Green and Low-Carbon Transition

Green and low-carbon transition is one of the five major development tasks for the synthetic rubber industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Zhu Hong, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Rubber Industry Association, pointed out that the green development trend on the application end of the rubber industry is clear, and the industry needs to accelerate the industrialization of bio-based rubber and recycled rubber to build a diversified and sustainable raw material system.

Circular economy system is the core carrier of green development. Chen Minghang, Senior Engineer of Beijing Research & Design Institute of Rubber Industry Co., Ltd., suggested that the industry should promote circular economy construction from two aspects: first, build a sound waste rubber recycling network relying on regional recycling centers and digital recycling platforms; second, innovate recyclable material technologies, and develop low-energy circular regeneration technologies and high-value recycled material products.

Process upgrading and standard construction ensure the implementation of green transition. Li Xiaoyin, Secretary-General of the Synthetic Rubber Sub-Technical Committee, said that focusing on energy conservation and consumption reduction needs, carbon emission quota standards for key products should be formulated, and the application of green product evaluation standards for styrene-butadiene rubber, nitrile rubber, butadiene rubber and other products should be promoted in the industry. In addition, the 15th Five-Year Development Plan for the Synthetic Rubber Industry clearly states that it will promote the green upgrading of catalytic systems and process technologies for mainstream rubber types such as ethylene propylene rubber, butyl rubber and SBS; tackle the efficient preparation technology of low-cost bio-based monomers, including developing low-energy biomass pretreatment technologies, innovating biocatalytic and chemocatalytic conversion pathways, and breaking through key processes such as process intensification, green separation and low-cost large-scale production, to realize efficient and stable output of bio-based monomers.

Industry Development Outlook

Synthetic rubber, as an important basic industrial material for the national economy, has an industrial upgrading process deeply bound to the development of downstream high-end manufacturing sectors. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the industry will carry out systematic layout around the directions of differentiation, high-end upgrading and green development. It will gradually break through core technology bottlenecks, optimize product supply structure and enhance sustainable development capacity, so as to provide more reliable raw material support for downstream strategic emerging industries and promote China’s synthetic rubber industry to move toward the middle and high end of the global value chain.