Research and Markets has added the “Global and Chinese Natural Rubber Industry Report, 2014-2018” report to their offering.
Global natural rubber consumer markets are primarily concentrated in China, India, Europe, Japan, etc. China is the world’s largest consumer of natural rubber, guzzling 4,760 kt in 2014, representing a year-on-year rise of 13.1%, making up 39.1% of the world’s total consumption. Pulled by the demand from automobile and tire industries in China, natural rubber consumption will continue to grow and is expected to reach 6,791 kt by 2018.
Due to substantial decline in global natural rubber prices, the world’s natural rubber output fell by 1.5% from a year earlier to 12.07 million tons in 2014. Over the same period, global consumption of natural rubber saw a year-on-year growth of 6.8% to 12.16 million tons, destocking 89 kt, largely driven by continuous expansion of global tire industry.
However, limited by unfavorable weather conditions, the output of natural rubber in China is rather low, only 857 kt in 2014, or 7.1% of the global total. In order to meet supply-demand gap, China has to import a large amount of natural rubber from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, with imports reaching 2,610 kt in 2014, 54.8% of total consumption that year.