Over a period of four months that started Monday, Indonesia is to slash rubber exports by 98,160 tons. Malaysia started on the same date and plans to cut 15,600 tons, whereas Thailand, the world’s largest rubber producer, will cut 126,240 tons of rubber exports starting May 20.
ndonesia has committed to slashing the export volume of its natural rubber, along with Malaysia and Thailand as the members of the International Tripartite Rubber Council (ITRC), in an attempt to stabilize the global rubber price.
Over a period of four months that started Monday, Indonesia is to slash rubber exports by 98,160 tons. Malaysia started on the same date and plans to cut 15,600 tons, whereas Thailand, the world’s largest rubber producer, will cut 126,240 tons of rubber exports starting May 20.
Trade Ministry trade assessment and development agency head Kasan Muhri said the move was part of the ITRC’s sixth Agreed Export Tonnage Scheme (AETS), which in total would cut rubber exports by 240,000 tons this year.
“We will keep on monitoring rubber prices to ensure a remunerative profit for rubber farmers,” Kasan told journalists recently. “Meanwhile, exporters from the Indonesian Rubber Association [Gapkindo] will help oversee the export cuts.”
ITRC member countries represent 66 percent of the world’s rubber production, which amounted to 13.96 million tons in 2018, up 4.6 percent from the year before, according to the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC).
Thailand, the world’s largest producer, was estimated to have produced 4.82 million tons of rubber, followed by Indonesia, the world’s second-largest producer, at 3.77 million tons and Malaysia at 600,000 tons last year.
The global rubber price is currently holding steady at around US$1.4 per kilogram after it fell to below $1.2 in late 2018.
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