Natural Rubber Continues to Be Short of Supply

摘要

＜正＞ Import dependenceremains heavyChina is one of the major natural rub-ber producers in the world.Both theplanting area and the actual outputare the fifth in the world.China is alsothe largest consumer and importer ofnatural rubber in the world.The out-put of natural rubber in China wasonly 533.1 thousand tons in 2006,butthe total consumption was 2.13 mil-lion tons,and the imported amountwas 1.61 million tons,with the out-put satisfying only a quarter of thedemand.