Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Rubber Exporters Rejoice with a Likely Export of Over 50,000 tonne

by Phillip Horton

The exports of natural rubber of India are expected to cross the 50,000 tonne mark as envisaged by the Rubber Board of India for the year 2007-08. Given the encouraging rubber exports rubber exporters of India are cheering up. The prices of rubber in India are quite lower than the prices in the international market and by the 1st of March the total natural rubber exports of India would have been 43,113 tonne. According to the reports by the rubber industry the exports are likely to exceed over 56,500 tonne, the mark the industry was able to achieve in the last year.

The senior manager of Kochi’s rubber exporter AV Thomas and Company, Padmakumar expressed that the gap between the international and the national prices of rubber are more than ten rupees and hence it is easy for the rubber industry of India to export as much as 60,000 tonne in the current year. The per kilogram rate of the RSS4 variety of rubber in Kottayam stands at 101 rupees whereas the same grade of RSS-3 rubber in Bangkok costs about 115 rupees. In the same way in Kottayam the cost of the SMR 20 variety of rubber costs only 98 rupees per kilogram but the rate of this equivalent rubber variety in Malaysia costs 108 rupees. The Rubber Board of India had before estimated exports of rubber to stand at about 70,000 tonne.

However the board cut down its estimated rubber exports figures to as much as 25,000 tonne owing to bad weather conditions and a viral fever that gripped the tappers and rubber tapping was thus hampered. However as the weather improved the Rubber Board again revised its export estimate and predicted its target export to stand at about 50,000 tonne which was the double of the estimate than the one which was cut down earlier. The prices of rubber in the futures market climbed and at 5 pm the last traded price of March contract on NMCE had stood at 101.68 rupees for one kilogram and its previous closing price was 100.69. A rubber trader Bijosh P Thomas based in Kottayam hoped that the prices will range from 110 rupees to 115 rupees by the middle of April owing to domestic demand by the tyre companies. Although the stocks at the warehouse of NMCE dropped from its January 14,000 tonne to 7,000.

The tyre manufacturers in the country are not at all happy about the rubber exports as they think that the exports are affecting the availability of rubber in the market. Director General Rajiv Budhraja of the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association or ATMA expressed that the growers and dealers are watching the great prices on the futures exchange of Tokyo but they are not ready to offload the stocks they have. The DG further added that in the domestic market rubber cannot be purchased even at these prices as there is no rubber available in the domestic market and the exports are also slated to exceed the target. Production of rubber this year compared with the production in the last year has also dropped and consumption has risen.

 

 

 

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