Search Results

Tyre Stewardship Australia – the end-of-life tire management authority in Australia – writes that the tire manufacturing industry is now taking another step towards assuring sustainable natural rubber. According to its recent social media feed, members of the multi-stakeholder Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) took an important step towards ensuring the production, processing and consumption of natural rubber does not cause social or environmental harm.

Climate change, Covid-19 pandemic and the fight for shipping containers are some of the obstacles that rubber producers face these days. The global rubber market has recently witnessed numerous supply chain disruptions, and now the international economy is challenged by a rubber deficiency, according to CNBC report. The broadcaster spoke to Ohio State University professor Katrina Cornish, who says that the global market is on the verge of ‘a rubber apocalypse’. Rubber is a crucial component used in the making of car tires, and supply chain disruptions can seriously impact the tire recycling industry. According to some forecast quoted by CNBC, the demand for natural rubber will only be increasing, and the NR market could be estimated at nearly $68.5 billion by 2026. And people’s dependence on car tires will keep on boosting the demand for rubber.

According to Hidde Smit – a consultant and analyst of Rubber Forecasts – natural rubber (NR) prices will be going up during the next two quarters of 2017 before commodity surplus weighs in on the market again. Price increase will occur due to severe winter season in Thailand as well as reduction in tapping activities. In his speech during the Tire Technology Expo in Hannover, Germany held this February, Mr. Smit pointed out that tapping intensities in rubber-producing countries went down predominantly due to decreased prices since 2013 (below USD 2.00) as well as severe floods in Thailand – the biggest natural rubber producing country – the beginning of the year.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has released the Monthly Natural Rubber Statistical Report for March 2023, which updates the outlook for the global natural rubber market based on the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections. The report states that global production of natural rubber is expected to grow by 2.7% to reach 14.916 million tons, while global demand is expected to contract by 0.4% to 14.912 million tons. In March, global natural rubber production decreased by 26.1% to 967,000 tons compared to the previous month, while global demand is estimated to increase by 7.9% to 1.306 million tons during the same period.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) claims that the growth was driven by the recovery in crude oil prices, mid-term supply concerns, new expectations of a faster-paced global economic recovery led by the U.S. All these factors improve outlook for natural rubber demand. According to a statement from ANRPC the crude oil price recovery impact was caused by OPEC’s deal on the 30th of November 2016, which stipulates cut in output by 1.2 million barrels per day during the 1st half of 2017.

Natural rubber production offers significant opportunities to enhance both environmental and social outcomes. While the expansion of rubber plantations can negatively impact tropical forests, sustainable practices can mitigate these effects by protecting biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, promoting dignified working conditions and upholding workers' rights on rubber plantations is crucial to fostering an ethical and sustainable industry.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) released April issue of its Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics. Below we cite the ANRPC’s publication and share views of the organization on the current trends on natural rubber markets, which very much affect prices for recycled rubber materials and goods. ANRPC writes that while the Covid-19 pandemic has put the entire world in a standstill with the lockdowns, movement controls, social distancing practices and widespread closures implemented by governments around the world, they have impacted the natural rubber industry in multiple ways. In this context, ANRPC has made a preliminary assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the production, primary processing, trading and consumption of NR in its member countries. The key observations reported by member governments are briefly presented in the April issue of ANRPC’s Natural Rubber Trends and Statistics.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), recently released its report “Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics, October- November 2020”. The ANRPC says the world production of natural rubber (NR) fell by 8.5%, year-over-year, to 10.098 million tons during Jan-Oct 2020. Expecting a 10.8%, year-over-year, drop during Nov-Dec 2020, the production during the full year 2020 is expected at 12.597 million tons, down 9.0% from the previous year. ANRPC’s revised outlook represents a downward revision by 304,000 tons or 2.2 percentage points from the outlook for 2020 which ANRPC had reported in September 2020. The outlook reported in Sep 2020 was 12.901 million tons at 6.8% fall. In 2021, the world production is anticipated to recover by posting an 8.6% increase to 13.678 million tons. Even if it increases at the anticipated 8.6% rate, the output in 2021 will remain lower than that in 2019 (13.842 million tons) or 2018 (13. 839 million tons).

By mid-May all price-gains made earlier in the second quarter in the Natural Rubber markets, have been completely diminished. Since then some significant hikes have been recorded in Thailand, Japan, China and Malaysia. However, in overall markets are still far behind the peaks reached in April, which suggests that the attempt by the producer-country to rebalance the market is losing strength.