ANRPC reports 8.7% growth in rubber demand in 2021

Kuala Lumpur – The natural rubber (NR) industry posted a strong recovery in 2021, with an 8.7% growth in demand compared to 2020, according to the latest figures offered by the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries.

Total consumption figures came in at 14.079 million tonnes in 2021, as demand increased in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, said ANRPC in its full year update 9 Feb. 

Despite the overall positive development, the association noted a slowdown in demand in the final quarter of the year, as December 2021 and fourth quarter recorded a contraction at 3.2% and 1.9% respectively.

This, said ANRPC, was due to the resurgence of Covid-19 and prolonged logistics and supply chain problems caused by high shipping costs.

On the supply side, NR production only grew 1.7% to 13.821 million tonnes in 2021, down by 61,000 from ANRPC’s November estimates. 

Over the month of December, supply fell 3.7% year-on-year, due to adverse weather and high rainfall distribution factors among major producing countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. 

Floods reported in Thailand during early December 2021 affected over 21,109 households (about 436 villages) across eight provinces in southern Thailand.

Malaysia also had its “worst ever series of floods” which affected 62,299 people, displaced in 430 evacuation centres. 

“These adverse weathers have definitely disrupted the supply of raw material as number of tapping days got affected,” said the ANRPC. 

The ANRPC also noted that prices improved during the year and averaged around $1.68 per kg for TSR-20 grades and $2.17 per kg for RSS-grades during 2021.