Demand for natural rubber may revive in Q3 of 2020

Preliminary estimate shows that China consumed 456,000 tonne of NR in July, closely matching with 464,000 tonne consumed during the same month of the previous year, ANRPC sources said.

The global demand for natural rubber (NR) is estimated to revive in the third quarter of 2020 after declining 14% year-on-year during the first seven months (January-July), the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) said on Thursday.

The inter-governmental organisation of 13 rubber producing countries in its latest report said the global demand for NR is likely to fall by 2.9 % in Q3 of 2020, after it fell 15% in Q1 because of China and 15.8% in Q2 due to contraction of demand in other countries.

The ANRPC said consumption of NR is expected to make recovery during the third quarter (July-Sept 2020) on account of the US economy recovering fast, the Chinese manufacturing sector rebounding and rebound in vehicles production and sales in China and India.

Preliminary estimate shows that China consumed 456,000 tonne of NR in July, closely matching with 464,000 tonne consumed during the same month of the previous year, ANRPC sources said. The outlook for the world consumption for the full year 2020 has been revised downwards in view of the lower-than-expected performance during April-June in the US and the EU at 12.544 million tonne, a fall of 8.9% from the previous year.

“The developments in the market in the short and medium term heavily depend on the global economic recovery and a revival of the automobile industry and the transport sector. The realisation of these depends on how early an effective vaccine against coronavirus is developed and its mass production is achieved,” RB Premadasa, secretary-general of ANRPC, said. ANRPC estimates that global production of NR fell 8.9% year-on-year to 6.721 million tonne during the first seven months of 2020.