natural rubber

Rubber consumption in China has continuously taken the lead in the world for the recent four years due to the rapid development of China’s national economic mainstay industries such as automobile industry, traffic and transportation industries. It is predicted that the rubber consumption of China will up to 3800kt in 2006, accounting for 1/5 that of the world. Therefore, China has become the largest potential rubber consumption market of the world. China has been short of rubber resources for a long time, at present, more than 70％ of the natural rubber and about 40％ of the synthetic rubber is depending on import. The present condition and the future demands of China’s rubber resources have already caused close attention of the domestic and international natural rubber and SR producers and traders. Natural rubber, on the other hand, is also consumed as an industrial raw material. In rubber articles, the two kinds of elastomers are never distinguished by us as users. It could be natural, synthetic or blends of various rubbers in different proportions. The manufacturer of these articles are basically choosing the kinds of rubbers to be used on the grounds of technological merit and economic availability. 70％ of natural rubber and 60％ of SR have been manufactured into automotive tyres. The local prices for natural rubber have meanwhile clearly fallen in China and the inquiries of Chinese traders for RSS 3 from Thailand seem to have definitely lessened.