Global production and consumption are up

A study on world rubber industry trends in 2014, recently published by the International Rubber Study Group, shows that production exceeded 28.7 million tons, recording an overall increase of 3.7% compared with 2013. As for consumption, 2014 saw an overall increase of 7.7% compared with 2013, reaching just over 28.9 million tons: this is a volume that, for the first time since 2010, exceeded the level of production, and thus necessitated the use of stock.

Production of natural rubber amounted to just over 12 million tons, a figure that represents a drop of 1.5%. Present on the winners’ podium once again were the big South East Asian suppliers, namely, in this order, Thailand (4.3 million tons; +3.7%), Indonesia (3.2 million tons; -2.6%) and Vietnam (over 950 thousand tons; +0.5%). On the consumption side, demand stood at around 12.2 million tons (+6.8%), 4.8 million of which were absorbed by China (+13.1%), followed at some distance by India (1 million tons; +5.3%). With regard to synthetic rubber, a sector that saw production reaching almost 16.7 million tons (+7.8%), China was once again the leading producer, with a share of 5.3 million tons (+29.9%), followed by the United States, with just over 2.3 million tons (+3.5%). Consumption of synthetic elastomers in 2014 reached 16.8 million tons (+8.3%) and here again, China, with over 6.6 million tons, corresponding to a  22.1% increase on 2013, retained its lead. Then came the United States, consuming just under 1.9 million tons (+9.2%). Overall, China consumes just under 40% of the rubber produced in the world, followed by the US (around 10%).

The European Union, on the other hand, recorded an approximately 2% growth in demand, shared between natural rubber (1.1 million tons, + 7.5%) and synthetic rubber (more than 2.3 million tons, -0.4%). The leading European consumers – Germany (810 thousand tons), France (374 thousand tons) and Spain (369 thousand tons) – recorded  drops of between 1.9 and 1.5%. The consumption recorded by Poland (fourth in the classification), on the other hand, increased by 14.8%, to reach the 322 thousand ton mark. Finally, in Italy, Europe’s third largest producer and fifth largest consumer, production and consumption of synthetic rubber in 2014 amounted to 193 thousand tons (+3% on 2013) and over 162 thousand tons (-5.3%), whereas consumption of natural rubber reached more than 104 thousand tons (+8.9%).