The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) has released its Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics report for October-November 2020.
It notes that world production of natural rubber (NR) fell by 8.5% year-on-year to 10.098 million tons, between Jan-Oct 2020. Anticipating a 10.8% drop during Nov-Dec 2020, the production during the full year 2020 is expected to be 12.597 million tons, down 9.0% from the previous year. The revised outlook represents a downward revision by 304,000 tons, or 2.2 % from the 2020 outlook that ANRPC predicted in September 2020.
In 2021, the organization anticipates world production to recover by 8.6%, to 13.678 million tons. However, even if it increases at the anticipated 8.6% rate, output in 2021 will remain lower than that in 2019 (13.842 million tons) and 2018 (13.839 million tons).
Meanwhile, world consumption of NR fell by 8.6%, year-on-year, to 10.496 million tons for Jan-Oct 2020. Accounting for an anticipated 1.2% increase during Nov-Dec, the likely world consumption during the full year 2020 is expected to be 12.811 million tons, a 6.9% fall from the previous year. The revised outlook represents an upward revision by 200,000 tons or 1.5% from the outlook reported in September 2020. In 2021, world consumption is anticipated to make a recovery of 4.9% to 13.436 million tons. Again, consumption in 2021 will not reach the quantity consumed in 2019 (13.768 million tons) or in 2018 (13.898 million tons).
