China to consume 3.5m tonnes of recycled rubber

By David Shaw, ERJ staff report

Singapore - In a revelation which may cause some economists to adjust their models, China's CRIA said the country will consume around 3.5 million tonnes of recycled rubber in 2012.

This figure represents over 10 percent of the total global rubber consumption, and compares with China's consumption of 6.9 million tones of virgin rubber in 2011. This is made up of 3.2 million tonnes of natural rubber and 3.7 million tonnes of synthetic rubber. In 2012 this is likely to increase to 3.4 million tonnes of NR and 4 million tonnes of synthetic, adding to 7.4 million.

The announcement was made by Mary Xu, deputy secretary-general of the China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) speaking at the World Rubber Summit. She said China consumed 3 million tonnes of recycled rubber in 2011, which represents around 81 percent of recycled rubber consumed in the world. The average price of the recyclate was RMB 5500 per tonne, or around one sixth of the price of virgin rubber.