Natural rubber output up 27 per cent in Jan; imports down 39 per cent

New Delhi: The production of natural rubber rose by 27 per cent to 66,000 tonnes in January while imports fell by 39 per cent to 24,093 tonnes.

According to the Rubber Board data, the production and imports stood at 52,000 tonnes and 39,512 tonnes, respectively in the same month last year.

The consumption of natural rubber declined marginally by 1 per cent to 84,000 tonnes last month from 84,875 tonnes in January 2016, the data showed. The stocks at the end of January stood at 2.77 lakh tonnes.

During the April-January period of this fiscal, the natural rubber production increased by 15 per cent to 5.65 lakh tonnes from 4.92 lakh tonnes in the corresponding 10 months of the previous year.

The consumption increased by 5 per cent to 8,59,930 tonnes during the first ten months of this fiscal from 8,21,915 tonnes in the year-ago period.

Imports, however, declined by 3.38 per cent to 3,85,017 tonnes during April-January of this fiscal from 3,98,487 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year. Natural rubber exports rose to 9,800 tonnes from 671 tonnes during the period under review.