Sumitomo Rubber plans tires free of oil

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd, Japan's second-biggest tire maker, plans to start selling in Japan tires that include no petrochemical materials by 2013, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

The company has set a medium-term strategy to fight climate change by introducing a tire which uses as little raw material made from oil as possible and at the same time that spins more smoothly to save more fuel than a conventional tire.

In June, Sumitomo Rubber launched in Japan tires in which petrochemicals account for 3 percent of raw materials, compared with 56 percent of its ordinary tires. The remaining 97 percent consists of oil-free materials such as steel wires, vegetable oil, fibers from plant cellulose and natural rubber.

Its price is more than 30 percent higher than that of an ordinary tire.

"How to produce the remaining 3-percent part from other natural resources but oil is now under development," the spokesman Ryota Senshu said. The remaining additives currently made from petrochemical materials are used to protect tires from aging and for other purposes, he said.

The company, with overseas tire brands that include Falken, plans to sell 20,000 units of the 97-percent oil-free tire in the 12 months from June, and its sales of the tire, Enasave, have so far been in line with the plan, Senshu said.

(Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Michael Urquhart)