Friday, January 6, 2012

Demand to remain weak, but gap to increase


According to a recent report of Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), the natural Rubber demand is expected to remain low for 2012, due to the deepening Euro debt crisis. Large number of rubber based units are in crisis across the globe, find it difficult to resist the situation. Growers and traders expect natural rubber prices to hold firm in the first-half of 2012.

The economic slowdown and a flood of imported rubber products hit the domestic rubber industry, while short supplies and high prices of natural rubber affected the rubber based units, especially those in the small and tiny sectors, said Vinod Simon, president of All India Rubber Industries Association.

Tyre manufacturers and other rubber based industries fear that the gap between production and consumption would widen further in the New Year, as the industry has lined up large-scale investments in the truck and bus radial segments, expects natural rubber demand to go up. Rubber industry has reiterated its demand for duty free imports as a short-term measure. Industry hope that the government would bring down the import duty on latex to the level of natural rubber and raise import duty on finished rubber products.

New Year has begun on a challenging note, the gap between domestic production and consumption was likely to widen as efforts to import natural rubber proved expensive on account of the depreciation in rupee value, said Neeraj Kanwar, Chairman of Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association.

Read lot more in Rubber4U – 15th January 2012 issue

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