News From Secretariat
ANRPC Releases Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics, February 2019
Apr 19, 2019
The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) is happy to release the Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics, February 2019.
From Secretary-General's Desk
Based on the preliminary estimates, the world production of natural rubber (NR) again recorded a fall at 5.8%, year-over-year, amounting to 2.138 million tonnes during the first two months of 2019. This fall is attributed to the recent tropical storm in Thailand and early wintering season of rubber trees observed across member countries. Another reason for this production decline was the outbreak of a new, serious fungal leaf-fall disease, probably caused by Pestalotiopsis sp., over rubber growing areas in Sumatra. The world demand of NR has marginally decreased by 3,000 tonnes to 2.173 million tonnes during the same reference period.
Despite the worries over slowdown in Chinese’s economy and the concern over global economic growth, the rubber market has been backed by the sentiments over on-going trade deals between China and US and the decision of unchanged interest rate from the Federal Reserve in February 2019. In addition, the plan from International Tripartite Rubber Council over their 6th Implementation of Agreed Exports Tonnage Scheme (AETS) to curb the exports in the coming months and the development in crude oil market from the commitment of cut by OPEC have also extended the support of the price rallies observed in physical and futures rubber market during February 2019.
The analysis and data given in this publication could help to closely understand the prevailing situation in the market and the emerging scenario. ANRPC owes a debt of gratitude to its statistical correspondents in the member countries and the esteemed users of this publication.
Thank you.
Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich
Secretary-General, ANRPC