Looking back into 2018, The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) reported that for eleven consecutive months up until December the global demand for natural rubber was growing and escalated 5 percent overall reaching more than 12,850 million tons, whereas in 2017, during the same time span, the number was just a bit over 12,200 million tons.

This development came at a time when the global manufacturing of natural rubber grew more than 5 percent reaching over 12,800 million tons, as in 2017 it was a bit more that 12 million tons.

In November 2018, the crude oil showed declining tendency as the price for the valuable resource stood at US$60 per barrel at the last days of the month. If to characterize the natural rubber market for that period, it was quite unstable due to China-US trade war, growth of the interest rates and the emergence of rubber futures markets in regions. The price was fluctuating as during the third week of the month it went down to a 10-month lowest point but it started to recover in the fourth week, thus, the market closed a bit higher gaining approximately US$1.23 per kg.

Article by ANRPC.