ANRPC notes rubber shortfall but "bearish" demand

Kuala Lumpur – Global demand for natural rubber (NR) rose 5.2% year-on-year to 11.7 million tonnes for the first 10 months of 2018, new figures from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) show.

NR production increased 5.5% to 11.5 million tonnes during the period, leading to a shortfall of 228,000 tonnes, ANRPC secretary-general Nguyen Ngoc Bich reported in a review issued 24 Dec.

In early October, the International Monetary Fund lowered its projection for global growth for 2019 by 0.2% to 3.7%, the ANRPC leader also noted.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Bich, the downgrade to the IMF’s ‘world economic outlook’ reflected the negative effects of the trade measures in the past six months.

“Commodities markets, such as oil and rubber markets, have been volatile and bearish during October 2018,” the secretary-general commented.