Goodyear Tire CEO says company has enough supply to blunt looming rubber shortage
Goodyear Tire & Rubber CEO Rich Kramer told CNBC Tuesday that he doesn’t expect a looming shortage in rubber to hurt the tire manufacturer.
Concerns over a low supply of rubber, made from rubber trees mostly grown in Southeast Asia, is the latest problem facing automakers already struggling with a lack of semiconductors.
When asked if the company has enough of the material to produce tires for cars, Kramer said, “short answer is: We do.”
“Essentially what you see happening is … either speculation or it’s a lot of even China [putting] rubber in warehouses,” Kramer said in an interview with Jim Cramer on “Mad Money.”
“It’s something that’s always out there, a lot of speculation going on,” he added. “I can never say never about something that could happen to southeast Asian rubber trees, but that’s really not been a problem for us, and the team’s been managing it brilliantly.”
Shares of Goodyear rose 3% on Tuesday before closing at $18.28.