Global rubber output down 2.2 percent in 2009

Global natural rubber output will fall 2.2 percent to 8.9 million tonnes in 2009 as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia produce less, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries said on Monday. The ANRPC accounts for 94 percent of global natural rubber production. Other members are India, Vietnam, China and Sri Lanka.
"(In) Thailand, the largest natural rubber producing country accounting for about 33 percent of the global supply, production dropped by 13.9 percent during the first two months of 2009 on a year-over-year basis," the ANRPC said in its March report.
In its March report, it pegged Thailands output at 3.075 million tonnes in 2009, down from 3.090 million last year. The group offered no estimates for this years Thai production in its February report issued last month, but revised down output for Indonesia and India from that report.
Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed in December to take 915,000 tonnes of rubber out of the market in 2009, or a sixth of their 2007 combined exports of 5.5 million tonnes to support prices as a global economic downturn cut demand for tyres. Cash rubber prices have more than halved from Julys 56-year peak around $3.20 a kg. Indonesias was forecast to produce 2.586 million tonnes of rubber in 2009, down from 2.751 million tonnes in 2008. ANRPC had earlier put the countrys production at 2.852 million tonnes this year.
"Being the second largest producing country accounting for around 29 percent of the global supply, this 6 percent decline would bring down the global supply by 165,000 tonnes," said the ANRPC. Output in Malaysia, the worlds third-largest producer, was forecast at 1.023 million tonnes this year, down from 1.072 million last year.
"Tapped area which came down by 173,000 hectares (427,310 acres) in 2008 is anticipated to come down further by 20,000 hectares in 2009," said the group. "India has scaled down the production forecasts for 2009 in the backdrop of an unusually severe drought experienced during the first quarter of the year in the countrys major rubber growing region."