February records 7% growth in natural rubber demand

Kuala Lumpur – Natural rubber (NR) consumption registered a 7.3% year-on-year increase during February, following a 17% decline the month before, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has reported.

Global NR consumption last month reached 1.2 million tonnes, driven by high demand from China, other Asian countries and the rest of the world, said ANRPC's monthly report, issued 20 March .

Partially impacted by the week-long Chinese New Year, consumption in January fell to 1.0 million tonnes, the Malaysia-based association also noted.

NR production registered a 2.6% year-on-year increase in February, to over 1.0 million tonnes.

ANRPC also provided final NR figures for 2022, slightly revising down its estimated production figure for the year to 14.350 million tonnes.

The update reflected a 13,000-tonne increase in India’s output forecast to 843,000 tonnes and a 19.7% year-on-year decrease in Malaysia’s to 377,000 tonnes, said ANRPC.

Overall, production growth stood at 1.97% for the year, as opposed to earlier estimate of 2.0% reported in January.

Demand last year rose 1.6% to 14.766 million tonnes, reflecting a marginal revision in the initial full-year estimate of 14,756 million tonnes reported in January.