India overtakes US in rubber consumption
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Posted: Friday, May 14, 2010 at 1936 hrs IST
Updated: Friday, May 14, 2010 at 1936 hrs IST
Kottayam: India has overtaken recession-hit US as the second largest consumer of natural rubber, clocking a 6.8 per cent growth in 2009-10, a top Rubber Board Official said today.
India’s consumption of rubber rose to 930,565 tonnes in 2009-10 from 811,720 tonnes, board Chairman Sajan Peter said at the 162nd annual meeting of the Board here yesterday.
United States lost its No.2 position as its consumption plummeted by 34 per cent with the economic slowdown adversely affecting it, he said. China is the world’s largest rubber consumer.
During 2008-09 the consumption of natural rubber by US was 1,041,000 tonnes which fell to 687,000 tonnes in 2009-10, on account of recessionary trends, Peter said.
In India, the consumption of rubber by automotive tyre sector in 2009-10 moved up by 13.5 per cent against 2.5 per cent in 2008-09.
The production of rubber during 2009-10, however, decreased to 831,400 tonnes from 864,500 tonnes in 2008-09, a decline of 3.8 per cent with the unfavourable weather conditions and increase in the number of age old plantations being cited as the reason, he said.
The consumption in the automotive tyre sector in 2008-09 was 508,121 tonnes which increased by 13.5 per cent to 576,799 tonnes. The production is expected to rise by 8.93 lakh in 2010-11 from 8.31 lakh of the previous year.
According to estimates, during 2010-11 fiscal the production will be down by 85,000 tonnes compared with the consumption, but this will not affect the availability of rubber in the market as the country had 248,457 tonnes opening stocks, Peter said.
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