Rubber industry faces falling export price
The average export price of Vietnamese rubber fell in tandem with the global price, affected by the escalating US-China trade war, according to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (AgroTrade) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
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Rubber price in July slipped 5.9% from the previous month to US$1,347 per tonne. In the first half of the year, each tonne of rubber was sold abroad at an average US$1,453, plunging 21.5% as compared to the same time last year.
From the beginning of July, natural rubber prices in the world have experienced downward trend. Trade tensions between the US and China were billed as contributing factors to a wave of declines on the world’s rubber prices. In Tokyo’s Tocom, rubber price fell 2% month-on-month to US$1,486 per tonne as of July 20. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, rubber price in July dropped by around 2.8% to US$1,548 per tonne.
In the first seven months of the year, Vietnam earned US$997 million from shipping 696,000 tonnes of rubber to foreign countries, declining 10.7% in value and up 9.9% in volume year on year.
China, India, and Germany were the largest rubber importers of Vietnam in the period. Meanwhile, strong growth in import of Vietnam’s rubber was seen in the Indian market (35.7%), and Indonesia (10.8%).
Also, the country splashed out US$608 million on buying 332,000 tonnes of foreign rubber, up 14.6% in volume but down 1.9% in value as compared to the same time last year.
The domestic rubber market has been gloomy. Experts said that besides increasing productivity, producers should pay due attention to improve quality of rubber latex, and diversify kinds of rubber products for exports.
The rubber industry should channel focus on the production of automobile tyres, gloves, and mattresses, they recommended.
