India’s natural rubber production in 2020 scaled down by 42,000 tonne: ANRPC

India’s natural rubber (NR) production in 2020 has been scaled down by 42,000 tonne to 668,000 tonne due to a burst in the number of daily new cases of Covid-19 in Kerala since the beginning of September and the abnormal leaf fall caused by the outbreak of Phytophthora disease in July and August, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has said.

The revised outlook by the inter-governmental organisation of 13 rubber producing countries said India has scaled up its consumption outlook for 2020 to 923,000 tonne from 900,000 tonne reported a month ago because of an increase in auto sales.

“The domestic sales of passenger cars increased 31.3% year on year in September, the highest growth over the past 27 months. The trend reversal in passenger car is driven by preference for personal mobility during the pandemic, gradual opening up of markets, easing of supply chains, labour availability and excitement of new vehicle launches,” the report said.

The ANRPC report mentions that in India, local prices of RSS4 in Kottayam stayed almost stable during September. Prices averaged at $182.70 per 100 kg during the month, up 3.5% from the average of $176.60 in August.

RB Premadasa, secretary-general of ANRPC, said in the report that NR prices further improved in September at varying degrees across different grades and different physical markets.

The report said the global production of NR during the full year 2020 is anticipated at 12.901 million tonne, reflecting a 6.8% fall from the previous year. The downward revision in the world supply outlook is largely due to the scaling down of the outlook for Thailand and India. The outlook on Thailand production has been scaled down by 332,000 tonne to 4.478 million tonne.

The world consumption outlook for the full year 2020 has been scaled up by 67,000 tonne to 12.611 million tonne, an 8.4% fall from the previous year. The ANRPC reports that China has marginally revised upward its consumption outlook for 2020 in view of an observed earlier-than-expected economic recovery and acceleration in growth.

The report added that the world demand for NR will remain constrained by uncertainties clouding the global economic recovery, acceleration in the number of new coronavirus cases, reintroduction of control measures and partial lockdowns across countries and a likely long delay in the mass availability of the vaccine.