Several rubber plantations in Hainan suspend production on high inventories

Some natural rubber farms in South China's Hainan Province have suspended production as inventories stay at a high level due to declining prices.

Hainan is the biggest natural rubber production base in the country.

At present, many private natural rubber plantations in Hainan have suspended investment in rubber tapping and management, while the provincial reclamation maintains production thanks to its risk hedging on the futures market as well as its subsidies for producers.

This year most of China's natural rubber plantations started tapping earlier than usual years.

In the first six months, the domestic natural rubber output saw a year-on-year increase. Given normal weather conditions and recovering demand in the second half, the country's natural rubber output is likely to grow over 5% in 2013, according to the China Natural Rubber Industry Association.

The association said earlier that the domestic natural rubber market situation was not optimistic in light of pressure from downtrend of rubber prices both home and abroad.

(Edited by Olivia, Olivia@tireworld.com.cn)