Thailand's Sri Trang Agro-Industry Pcl, the world's biggest natural rubber producing company, expects to increase sales by over 20 percent to 1.7 million tonnes this year, a senior company executive said on Friday.
Sri Trang's plantations are in northern Thailand and not affected by floods which have hit production in the south. It aims to increase sales this year from last year's target of 1.4 million tonnes, Thanawan Sa-ngiamsak, head of business development and investor relations, told Reuters. In the first nine months of 2016, sales reached 1.09 million tonnes.
The company also plans to increase its production capacity to 2.7 million tonnes this year, up from 2.4 million tonnes planned for 2016, Thanawan added.
The firm exports about 80-85 percent of its rubber, mainly to China, with the rest for domestic use, Thanawan said.
Because of the floods in the south, Thailand's rubber output is expected to fall by 7.6 percent this year to 4.38 million tonnes, down from the 4.74 million tonnes previously expected, according to the Rubber Authority of Thailand.