The average export price of Vietnamese rubber fell in tandem with the global price, affected by the escalating US-China trade war, according to the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority (AgroTrade) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

 

Rubber price in July slipped 5.9 percent from the previous month to 1,347 USD per tonne. In the first half of the year, each tonne of rubber was sold abroad at an average 1,453 USD, plunging 21.5 percent as compared to the same time last year.

 

From the beginning of July, natural rubber prices in the world have experienced downward trend. Trade tensions between the US and China were billed as contributing factors to a wave of declines on the world’s rubber prices. In Tokyo’s Tocom, rubber price fell 2 percent month-on-month to 1,486 USD per tonne as of July 20. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, rubber price in July dropped by around 2.8 percent to 1,548 USD per tonne.

 

In the first seven months of the year, Vietnam earned 997 million USD from shipping 696,000 tonnes of rubber to foreign countries, declining 10.7 percent in value and up 9.9 percent in volume year on year.

 

China, India, and Germany were the largest rubber importers of Vietnam in the period. Meanwhile, strong growth in import of Vietnam’s rubber was seen in the Indian market (35.7 percent), and Indonesia (10.8 percent).

 

Also, the country splashed out 608 million USD on buying 332,000 tonnes of foreign rubber, up 14.6 percent in volume but down 1.9 percent in value as compared to the same time last year.

 

The domestic rubber market has been gloomy. Experts said that besides increasing productivity, producers should pay due attention to improve quality of rubber latex, and diversify kinds of rubber products for exports.

 

The rubber industry should channel focus on the production of automobile tyres, gloves, and mattresses, they recommended.-VNA