69 per cent of Vietnam's Rubber Exports Come to China

Up to 69 per cent (or 246,238 tons) of Vietnam’s outbound rubber shipment in seven months of 2006 came to neighboring China, helping the country remain it the largest market for Vietnamese rubber, according to Dinh Van Tien of the Vietnam General Rubber Corporation (Geruco).

 

In August, around 150 tons of rubber exported to the Chinese market every day, traveling to 40 import enterprises. The export volume to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces surged 50 per cent.

 

Notably, the Chinese market needs as many as 1,200 tons per day.

 

Tien, who heads up the import-export department at Geruco, attributed their success to the Chinese government’s elimination of the quota mechanism and the increase of rubber prices in the world market.

 

The export price in August was averaged at $2,076 per ton, down roughly $65-70 per ton. Of which, export prices to China born decline of $130 per ton, to Spain $173, to US $90, to Hong Kong $80 and to Turkey $14 per ton compared with July’s prices.

 

The price of SVR3L rubber exported to China stood at 18,000 yuan (US$2,260) per ton in August and is expected to rise to 19,000 yuan this month.

 

Luckily, export prices of rubber to other markets remain high: Italy receives latex at $900 per ton; SVR3L was exported to Russia and the US market at about $1,315 per ton.

 

At the world rubber conference held in Thailand in July, experts forecast that the demand of China, Japan, US and EU markets would remain high, pulling the export prices to new highs.

 

The world demand for rubber will increase 6 per cent in the remainder of 2006 while prices increase steadily, said the International Rubber Study Group.

 

In a related development, Vietnam has recently been invited to take part in the International Rubber Consortium (IRCo) (founded in 2001 by leading rubber producers Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia) to help raise the global rubber price. The total rubber output produced by these three IRCo members currently accounts for 75 per cent of the world’s natural rubber output.