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Rubber sector aims for value-added products
Developing the rubber processing industry so it can produce more value-added products is one way of increasing the value of rubber export, which are currently mainly unprocessed latex, says Professor Nguyen Viet Bac from the Institute of Materials Chemistry.
In addition to increasing the export value, the prices of processed rubber products have remained fairly stable, Bac said, noting as an example the stability of tyre prices even when the price of raw material fell by half in 2008.
But the Southern Rubber Industry Joint Stock Company’s general director Le Van Tri noted that the large investment required to produce automobile tyres was generally out of reach of the nation’s rubber producers.
While natural latex can be domestically sourced, these firms need to import large volumes of chemicals for the processing. To produce a tyre for instance, firms need to import 30 kinds of chemicals, accounting for 50 percent of the total raw materials.
Vietnam Rubber Association’s general secretary Tran Thi Thuy Hoa also blamed the weak rubber processing industry on the country’s underdeveloped petro-chemical sector.
The director of the Anh Duong Rubber Joint Stock Company, Hoang Ngoc Yen, agreed that saying that his company, which produces rubber pipes for export, has to import not many materials but also the equipment and technology for the production process.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has approved a plan to put another 70,000ha of land nationwide under rubber to increase the total area to 800,000ha.
The plan estimates an output of 1.1 million tonnes of latex annually by 2015 with an annual export value for rubber and rubber products of US$1.8 billion.
Under plan, the government will continue to provide capital for research into new and hybrid varieties of rubber as well as the import of higher quality varieties with a higher yield.
Trade promotions will also be stepped up to expand export markets and boost the sales of rubber products.
Additional foreign investment, including joint ventures with foreign firms using more advanced technologies, will also be sought in an attempt to develop rubber processing industry and diversify products for export.
The nation exported nearly 540,000 tonnes of rubber, worth US$823 million in the first ten months of this year, a 2.5 percent increase in volume but a 41.2 percent decrease in value compared to the same period last year, according to the association’s latest statistics.
VOV, VNS
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