It’s exactly a century since the Firestone Natural Rubber Company first established a large-scale rubber industry in Liberia, but the country’s days of supplying international markets with unprocessed rubber are over – for now. In an effort to encourage domestic processing, manufacturing, employment, not to mention tax revenue, at the end of June Liberia’s president announced a ban on the export of raw, unprocessed natural rubber. The ban, incidentally, does not affect any Bridgestone operation, as the company does not export unprocessed rubber from Liberia. Tyrepress and Tyres & Accessories subscribers can log in below to read the full article. Log in here