Surging Natural Rubber Prices Hurting Vietnam Tire Makers

Surging prices of SVL 3R natural rubber used in tire production have caused difficulties to Vietnamese tire manufacturing companies.

 

Nguyen Quoc Anh, the member of management board of Southern Rubber Industry JSC, or Casumina, said that prices of Vietnamese natural rubber reaching VND52 million/ton (US$2,900), the highest prices since the third quarter of 2008, pushed tire production cost up by 50% from a year earlier.

 

Meanwhile, import prices of synthetic rubber also rose by 10%, but Casumina cannot raise tire prices, Anh added.

 

General Secretary of the Vietnam Rubber Association (VRA), Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, blamed the growing prices of domestic natural rubber for the price hikes to US$80/barrel of oil.

 

Hoa forecast that the natural rubber prices will keep rising in the coming quarter.

 

According to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam exported around 726,000 tons of rubber worth US$1.2 billion last year, of which 90% were natural rubber. Three biggest importers included China, Malaysia and Taiwan.

 

The VRA predicts that Vietnam’s total rubber export will hit 750,000 tons this year. (Saigon Economic Times)