Global rubber output likely to be at 10.025 million tonnes

Global natural rubber production for 2011 may come in at 10.025 million tonnes, lower than an earlier forecast of 10.060 million tonnes due to output revisions in member countries, the ANRPC said on Thursday. Despite the revision, the global output for the commodity mainly used in tyre was still higher than 9.473 million tonnes in 2010, according to the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC).
"The ANRPC's total supply would rise this year by 5.8 percent, slightly slower than the previously-expected 6.2 percent rate," the group said in a report. Output in Thailand, the world's main rubber producer, was revised down to 3.375 million tonnes in 2011 from an earlier forecast of 3.430 million tonnes, still higher than 3.252 million tonnes in 2010. Second-largest producer Indonesia's output forecast was raised to 2.972 million tonnes from a prior estimate of 2.955 million tonnes. Last year, Indonesia produced 2.736 million tonnes.
ANRPC members include Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia as well as Cambodia, China, India, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, accounting for 92 percent of global output. The group also accounts for 92 percent of global exports and 48 percent of global consumption of natural rubber.
Prices of tyre grade rubber have dropped more than 10 percent since striking a record above $6 per kg in February, as economic concerns triggered by the Middle East unrest and worries about the impact of a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan on demand spurred selling on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange.