Natural rubber prices up

L.S. Aananda Wedaarachchi

Natural rubber prices which dropped drastically last November, had increased during the past few weeks.

The Director General Rubber Development Department Wimal Rubasingha said that the trend of price increase of natural rubber could be seen in the local market and the international market during the last few months.

The price of a smoked natural rubber kilogram was Rs. 175 last week whereas it had dropped to Rs. 120 last November from Rs. 358 in March, 2008.Rubasingha said some factories which cutdown production due to the global recession had increased their production.

No other alternatives except for production of natural rubber was available to those factories as their raw material, he said.He said that a leading vehicle spare parts producing factory which tentatively reduced their production ten days per month had returned to normal.

The export group of the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries met last April in Manila. The trend of price increase of natural rubber could be continued, Rubasinghe said.