Vietnam rubber exports have shown positive signs as the volume and turnover have risen respectively by 2.3 and 92.4 percent compared the same period of 2009.
Till the first week of August 2010, natural rubber price has gone up compared to July 2010, since Chinese importers have again started to look for source of supply, after tightening imports in May and June 2010. In addition, many other markets also enhanced the import of rubber such as Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, and India, etc.
Meanwhile, supplies from countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam grew slowly due to unfavourable weather conditions. From June 2009, rubber price has risen continuously and hit a record of $410 per tonne in April 2010. However, in early May 2010, rubber price suddenly declined strongly, and then started going up again from mid June.
Secretary general of Vietnam Rubber Association (VRA) Tran Thi Thuy Hoa said rubber exports of the country decreased in both volume and price in April and May 2010, since the rubber exploitation began, and the weather was not favourable.
An additional reason is Chinese authorities banned rubber exports across the border, and at the same time, China sold a large amount of rubber in stock. China is currently the biggest importer of Vietnamese rubber, holding 60 percent export market shares.
In June and July 2010, exports of rubber have recovered. According to statistics of Ministry of Industry and Trade, in July, exports of natural rubber of Vietnam reached nearly 85,000 tonnes, worth $237 million, up by 46.7 percent in volume and 44.5 percent in value, compared to June 2010. Compared to the same period of 2009, the export volume rose up by 2.3 percent, and value went up by 92.4 percent
Thus, in the first seven months of the year, exports of natural rubber reached 324,000 tonnes, worth $893million. Although there was a slight decrease of about 3.4 percent in volume, value still increased significantly by about 85 percent compared to the same period of last year.
In the current situation, VRA said, exports of rubber materials would reach the planned target. The country's supply volume of latex is expected to reach 770,000 tonnes, up by 6.4 percent, compared to 2009. Vietnam's export turnover of rubber may reach nearly $1.5 billion, up by about 22.3 percent compared to 2009.
Nevertheless, Hoa shared that businesses are still very concerned about the across border trade policy of China, while currently, more than 80 percent of total rubber volume exported to China is made via border trade.
In order to minimise the unpredictable impacts of the ban, VRA on one hand has advised businesses in the sector to actively improve the rubber quality to stimulate exports to China, as well as expand exports to other markets such as the EU, Latin America, and other Asian countries. Markets that increasingly import rubber from Vietnam are Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, the US, Russia, and India, etc.
On the other hand, VRA also proposed to related agencies in Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as the Vietnam Trade Offices in China to obtain border trade policy updated information and promptly inform Vietnamese businesses, in order to help them respond timely
Notably, in addition to rubber material exports, exports of rubber products have also shown significant growth. In the first seven months of 2010, rubber product exports reached $145 million, up by about 87 percent compared to the same period of last year. Of that, value of tyres exported accounted for 70 to 80 percent the total export value of rubber products.
Import of rubber products of Vietnam in the first seven months of 2010 rose up slightly by 24.3 percent compared to the same period of last year. This means trade deficit for rubber products has fallen significantly compared to the previous years, and the production capacity of rubber products of the country have grown. However, in order to assess the capacity of the entire sector, VRA said that the authorities should have more specific statistics.
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