HANOI: Vietnam, the world's fourth-largest exporter of natural rubber, stepped up its imports of the commodity last year which helped enable record shipments in 2011, customs data show.
The Southeast Asian nation imported 343,000 tonnes of rubber as of Dec. 15, 2011, or 14.7 percent above the amount it imported during the whole of 2010, Vietnam Customs data seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.
The finance ministry-run department has yet to issue data for rubber imports for the whole of 2011.
Apart from its own production, which mainly takes place in southeastern provinces, Vietnam also buys rubber from Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia for domestic production and re-export. China is the biggest buyer, taking around 60 percent of Vietnam's exports.
Last year Vietnam's rubber output rose 8 percent from 2010 to 811,600 tonnes and its annual exports also edged up 4.3 percent to a record 816,200 tonnes, government data show.
The Vietnam Rubber Association has yet to make an export projection for 2012, but an industry official said in October that output could be around 800,000 tonnes.
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