Indonesia could be top rubber producer after 2000
Indonesia could be top rubber producer after 2000
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Indonesia is expected to overtake Thailand as the world's number one rubber producer after the year 2000 while Malaysia is likely to keep its third position, a senior INRO official said yesterday.
"Thailand is likely to retain its number one position for the next few years but its rubber production is already reaching a plateau," said Christopher Goldthorpe of the Kuala Lumpur-based International Natural Rubber Organization.
Goldthorpe, who is INRO's senior rubber industry development officer, said Indonesia, with ample land and labor, is embarking on various rubber development programs which could greatly boost rubber production in the next century.
"Thailand has planted up most of its rubber growing areas while Indonesia still has vast tracts of suitable land in Kalimantan and Sumatra," Goldthorpe told Reuters at a Kuala Lumpur seminar on the future of the global rubber industry.
"But there's still much catching up for Indonesia to do in terms of numbers," he added.
Thailand produced 1.72 million tons of rubber in 1994 against Indonesia's 1.36 million tons -- a margin described by Goldthorpe as still wide.
He said Malaysia's output of 1.1 million tons last year was expected to consolidate marginally to around one million tons over the next five years.
The three southeast Asian countries currently account for over 70 percent of global output.
Goldthorpe said an increase in production is expected in the near-term in India -- which has become self-sufficient with its rubber demand -- and the Philippines and Vietnam -- which have grown rapidly in recent years as producers.
Falls in production are expected in Liberia and Nigeria, two of Africa's main rubber growers, due to civil unrest.
Goldthorpe said about 5.72 million tons of rubber was produced for the whole of last year, fetching around $6.3 billion based on the INRO's average daily market indicator price of $1,103 per ton.
He said about 70 percent of the rubber was consumed by the tire manufacturing sector and around 10 to 12 percent was used to make gloves, condoms, medical catheters, elastic thread and latex foam.