Traders Forecast China “Will Be World’s Largest Rubber Consumer”

Commodities traders are predicting that China will soon outstrip the USA as the world’s biggest consumer of rubber, importing one million tonnes this year and producing 400,000 tonnes itself. Demand from the tyre industry accounts for 80 per cent of this figure, as car sales increase to an estimated one million this year – a 40 per cent increase over last year. Sumitomo Rubber has announced that it would begin radial tyre production next April in China for both home and export markets.