India may fall behind China to land in sixth in the global natural production ranks. Currently, India is the fifth largest producer of natural rubber behind Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
“Some years ago, the projection was that India would achieve one million tonnes rubber production. But from the third position above Malaysia, we dropped to the fifth below Vietnam and is likely to fall below China this year given the shrinkage in output,” said N Radhakrishnan, a leading rubber merchant to Economic Times India. The rubber output in Thailand, the top producer, is around 4 million tonnes.
According to Rubber Board, India produced 281,000 tonnes to date, 15% less rubber than this time last year.
“It is like virtually a month’s production has been wiped out. The rubber imports have come down because of the increase in the import of finished tyres, which has hit the tyre industry badly . We thought the price support scheme of the Kerala government will arrest the fall in production,” said Rajiv Budhraja, director general, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association to Economic Times India.