This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Rubber News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
BANGKOK, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Global rubber consumption is expected to drop 3.3 percent in 2009, the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) said on Wednesday, revising down its previous forecast of 4.2 percent growth because of the world economic slowdown.
It said demand would grow only 1.9 percent in 2008, down from its in April of 2.7 percent.
“It’s a temporary phenomenon. The long-term outlook is still very good,” Hidde Smit, secretary general of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), told a conference in Bangkok.
The IRSG forecast global rubber consumption at 23.29 million tonnes in 2008, dropping to 22.52 million tonnes in 2009.
The IRSG also forecast that global rubber consumption would pick up in 2010, growing around 7 percent to 24.25 million tonnes as the global economy recovered.
Source: Reuters