Cos reduce natural rubber consumption

KOCHI: The sustained rise in natural rubber prices is slowly affecting it consumption. Substitution of natural rubber by synthetic rubber and the new trends in the transportation sector could be the reasons for this change.

Consumption of natural rubber by all user industries fell by 3% in November 2010. Provisional figures show that in December it fell by 1.3%.

The consumption by tyre sector saw a 4.3% fall in November and a 3% fall in December, pointing towards a similar substitution of natural rubber by synthetic. “Earlier, we used to consume 74% natural rubber and 26% synthetic rubber,” said Rajiv Budhraja, director general, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association.