Natural rubber production rose by 54% in month of February and stood at 57,000 tonnes. As per the data compiled by the Rubber Board, imports fell by 51% and stood to 15,609 tonnes. Natural rubber production and imports stood at 37,000 tonnes and 31,864 tonnes, respectively, in February 2016.
The consumption declined marginally to 83,000 tonnes in February, from 84,320 tonnes during February 2016. The consumption grew by 4% to 942,695 tonnes during the first 11 months, from 906,235 tonnes in the year-ago period.
Further, during April-February of 2016-17, the production of natural rubber went up by 18% to 6.22 lakh tonnes, from 5.29 lakh tonnes in the same period of the previous year. During April-February of 2016-17, the imports of natural rubber declined by 7% to 4, 00,812 tonnes from 4, 30,351 tonnes in the same period of the previous year.