MellkarThe United States sells rubber flooring at 5.41 and buys it at 2.11: the gap is not an error
Looking at a heading's price tables, it is easy to stop at something that looks like an error: the United States appears in the list of who sells and in the list of who buys. Sometimes at very different prices.
It is not an error. It is one of the most informative things in this data.
First, why it is in both
Because it does both. In 2025, in SBR, the United States shipped 88,857 tonnes to the American markets we track and bought 182,609 tonnes from Korea, Germany, Japan and other origins.
It is not the same material going round in a circle. It is a country that manufactures, sells part of it to the region, and at the same time buys twice as much abroad for its own industry. Mexico, Brazil, Germany and any economy with a processing industry do the same: in raw materials, almost nobody is only one thing.
The gap, heading by heading
This is what the United States declared in 2025, in both directions:
| Heading | Sells at | Buys at | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| SBR (400219) | 2.30 | 2.30 | 0% |
| Synthetic rubber (4002) | 2.46 | 2.65 | +8% |
| EPDM (400270) | 3.06 | 3.02 | −1% |
| Natural rubber (4001) | 2.58 | 2.31 | −11% |
| Compounded (4005) | 4.27 | 3.79 | −11% |
| Floor coverings (4016.91) | 5.41 | 2.11 | −61% |
| Waste and granulate (4004) | 0.95 | 0.22 | −77% |
All in USD per kilo. And there are three very different patterns in there.
Pattern 1 · Zero gap: the liquid commodity
SBR leaves and enters at the same price, four decimal places apart. Synthetic rubber and EPDM are close behind.
That is what you expect of a fungible polymer: a standardised product with a price arbitraged worldwide. Nobody buys SBR cheap in one place and sells it dear in another, because the market closes that gap within weeks.
For a buyer the reading is direct: in these headings the negotiation is not about finding the cheap origin, because there isn't one. It is about grade, volume and payment terms.
Pattern 2 · Deeply negative gap: the country transforms
Here is the interesting part. The United States sells floor covering at 5.41 and buys it at 2.11. It sells rubber waste at 0.95 and buys it at 0.22.
A country cannot buy the same thing at 0.22 and sell it at 0.95. What is happening is that it is not the same thing: the tariff heading is the same and the product is not.
- In waste (4004), it buys bulk shredded tyre and sells clean granulate, sized by particle range and free of steel and textile. What it charges extra for is the processing.
- In floor coverings (4016.91), it buys standard tile from China and India and sells high-specification industrial product. The heading is wide: a gym tile and a certified technical sheet both fit inside it.
A large negative gap is the fingerprint of an industry adding value. In cheap, out dear, and the difference is work done inside the country.
Mexico repeats the exact pattern in waste: buys at 0.13, sells at 0.46.
Pattern 3 · Positive gap: the country buys the expensive end
Brazil in compounded, unvulcanised rubber (4005) sells at 2.87 and buys at 3.89 — 35% more than it sells for.
It is the inverse pattern: it exports standard formulations and imports specialty compounds it does not make. It is the signature of an industry that covers the middle of the range and depends on outside supply for the top.
Why this comparison is more reliable than others
A note on method that matters, because it is the reason this figure is usable when similar ones are not.
When you compare one country's departure price with another's landing price, you are comparing two different customs authorities, and two authorities never fully agree: they classify differently, value differently and attribute re-exports differently. That discrepancy can be as large as what you are trying to measure.
That does not happen here. Both figures — what it sells and what it buys — are declared by the same administration, in the same year, under the same criteria. The gap comes out clean of that problem. It is one of the few international trade comparisons where that holds.
What to do with this when buying
If a country's gap is zero, do not chase price by chasing origin. You are looking at a commodity with a world price and the advantage lies elsewhere.
If the gap is deeply negative, mind the heading: it is wide and holds products that are not alike. There, a quote that looks cheap may be a different product, and one that looks expensive may be the right one. Specify.
And either way, look at both directions before deciding where to buy. A country that buys a lot of something is usually a poor place to buy it: if it imports it itself, it will resell it to you.