RI unfazed by U.S. rubber stock release

RI unfazed by U.S. rubber stock release

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Rubber Producers Association is not worried about the United States' plan to release up to 125 tons of its rubber stocks every year.

The association's executive director A.F.S. Budiman said yesterday the yearly release of 125 tons of rubber on the U.S. market would not affect Indonesia's exports to the U.S..

"That country has notified us that it will only release 250 tons of its rubber stocks until the year 1998," Budiman was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said the U.S. market was important because it received more than 60 percent of Indonesia's total rubber exports.

Indonesia, the world's second largest rubber producing country after Thailand, exported 1.32 million tons of rubber last year, up from 1.24 million tons in 1994.

Thailand supplies 31 percent of the world's rubber market, followed by Indonesia with a 21 percent market share and Malaysia with 9 percent.

Budiman said world rubber prices were now stable at around 55 U.S. cents a pound. Domestically, rubber prices range from Rp 2,600 (US$1.1) to Rp 2,700 a kilogram.

"Such price stability is expected to encourage Indonesia's rubber producers to push up their production and exports," Budiman said.

During the rainy season, rubber output declines because rubber farmers do not tap their trees, he said.

Indonesia produces about 1.5 million tons of rubber a year, mainly in the provinces of North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Jambi and West Kalimantan.

Smallholders produce 75 percent of Indonesia's rubber. Their plantations make up 83 percent of Indonesia's rubber plantation areas.

Indonesia's total rubber output usually comprises 90 percent technically specified rubber, 6 percent ribbed smoked sheet, 3 percent latex concentrate and 1 percent other rubber grades. (rid)