Synthetic rubber production down 11% in April

Synthetic rubber production down 11% in April

New Delhi, July 30: India’s synthetic rubber production fell by 11 per cent to 8,285 tonnes in April this year, while its consumption declined by 5 per cent to 35,150 tonnes during the period, latest Rubber Board data said.
In April 2011, rubber production stood at 9,262 tonnes, while consumption of the commodity was 36,890 tonnes.
During the month under review, consumption by the auto tyre industry also fell by 8 per cent to 25,834 tonnes from 28,062 tonnes in the year-ago period, the data said.
Import of synthetic rubber declined up by 5 per cent to 26,420 tonnes in April, 2012, from 27,868 tonnes in the same period previous year.
The total stock of synthetic rubber in the country at the end of April, 2012, stood at 49,880 tonnes.
Synthetic rubber is mostly used in the manufacture of tyres, besides in cycle tyres and tubes, footwear, belts and hoses, among other items.
The country’s synthetic rubber consumption rose 3 per cent to 4,23,350 tonnes last fiscal against 4,11,830 tonnes in the 2010-11 fiscal, while production rose marginally to 1,10,599 tonnes from 1,10,340 tonnes in the same period.
During 2011-12, consumption by the auto tyre industry rose by 3 per cent to 3,07,365 tonnes from 2,98,414 tonnes in the year-ago period.
Synthetic rubber import went up by 8 per cent to 3,27,625 tonnes in 2011-12, from 3,02,030 tonnes during 2010-11.
(Source: The Hindu BusinessLine)







Rubber Demand in China Set to Contract 5% as Truck Sales Tumble

By Bloomberg News
July 31 Natural-rubber demand in China, the
world’s largest user, may drop this year as slumping truck sales
and slowing economic growth cut sales of heavy-duty tires,
according to the country’s biggest maker.
Usage may contract as much as 5 percent, said Shen Jinrong,
chairman of Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Shen’s outlook compares with a forecast in June from Chris Pardey, chief executive at Singapore-based trading company RCMA Commodities Asia Group, for a 2.3 percent drop in demand to 3.69 million metric tons.
Lower demand may extend rubber’s 12 percent drop in Tokyo
this year, with prices poised for a fifth monthly decline in
July. China’s economy expanded in the second quarter at the
slowest pace in three years as Europe’s debt crisis hurt exports.
Komatsu Ltd., the world’s second-biggest maker of dump trucks, said this month that demand in China wouldn’t recover this year.
The country is going through a so-called structural
adjustment, during which passenger-car sales remain robust,
while truck sales moderate, Shen said in an interview on July
26. That’s a major factor affecting rubber consumption since
the truck sector is the heaviest user, he said.
January-delivery rubber dropped 0.8 percent to 230.5 yen a
kilogram ($2,947 a ton) on Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 10:46 a.m. in Singapore. Its decline this year has exceeded the fall in the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials including oil and copper, which is down 0.1 percent.

Truck Tires

It’s the sales of Truck Bus Radial tires, or TBRs --
particularly those for earthmovers or heavy-duty trucks used in
mining and steel making -- that suffered the most, Shen said.
Prices are likely to stabilize from here or slide a bit
further in the second half.
China’s growth slowed to 7.6 percent in the three months
ended June, the sixth deceleration, as Europe’s crisis sapped
exports and a crackdown on property speculation curbed domestic
demand. Sales of trucks in China fell 7 percent in the first six
months as passenger-vehicle sales grew 7.1 percent, according to
data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
We might see the whole tire industry in China still
achieve low single-digit growth in terms of sales this year,
said Shen, who forecast in March that natural-rubber demand in
China may be flat in 2012 on poor commercial-vehicle demand.
Komatsu Chairman Masahiro Sakane said in a July 19
interview that I don’t think China will recover this year.
The company’s sales of excavators in China fell more than half
in the three months to June 30 from a year earlier, President
Kunio Noji said in an interview earlier this month.
A tire for a medium-to-heavy commercial vehicle uses as
much as 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of natural rubber on average,
compared with less than 1 kilogram for a typical passenger-car
tire, according to CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Singapore.
China accounts for 33 percent of global demand and tires
represent 70 percent of natural-rubber consumption in the
country, according to Sri Trang (Shanghai) Ltd., a unit of
Thailand’s biggest publicly listed producer.

(Source: Bloomberg)