India temporarily lowers import tariffs for natural rubber

According to the “Rubber World” report, in the past few months, the price of natural rubber in the Indian market has skyrocketed due to heavy rain in the central region of Kerala and Malabar. In November 2010, natural rubber production in India decreased by 5.4% year-on-year to only 88,500 tons. To this end, the Indian government announced that from now until March 31, 2011, natural rubber import tariffs temporarily reduced from 20% to 7.5%, in order to increase the domestic supply of natural rubber and rubber prices in India.

During the period from April to November 2010, the cumulative production of natural rubber in India increased by 2.9% year-on-year to 546,200 tons, and natural rubber imports reached 143,000 tons, slightly higher than the same period of last year. In November, imports of natural rubber soared by about 50% to 10,800 tons. According to India’s official estimates, during the low tariff period, India will import approximately 40,000 tons of natural rubber, which will not trigger the signing of new import contracts because the price of natural rubber in India’s local market is lower than the international market.