Raw rubber is heated and extruded on to the drum, followed by successive layers of steel wires and strips as the tyre takes shape.

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During their 18-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow, it emerged that the cocaine, which weighed 1, 100lb, had been hidden in bales of raw rubber exported from Panama.

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He also thinks the company and its rivals should benefit significantly from being able to pass on the increasing cost of rubber and other raw materials because their prices were, in fact, stabilizing.

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The steel mill he bought in 1989 was part of Ford's great River Rouge plant, where the father of mass-produced cars turned raw materials into vehicles on a single site -- transforming ore and rubber into finished cars (see box, p.122).

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The company, which currently gets most of its rubber from a plantation in Liberia, is also exploring other natural materials for producing the raw material for tires, including Russian dandelions and a native Southeast bush called guayule.

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