As of early May, the rubber inventories in Qingdao Free Trade Port Area totaled 249,800 tons, increasing 29,700 tons from mid-Apr., up 13.49%.
Since mid-Feb., the inventories here started to grow and the cumulative increase is the fastest in the past five years, showing no sign of slowing.
The situation is induced by high inventories of tire producers. The demand has been heavily overdrawn and new orders are limited, some factories have started to reduce operating rate, and the consumption of raw materials is fewer.
Since last Nov., China imported more natural rubber. In Apr., the import volume of natural rubber and synthetic rubber was 580,000 tons, and that the in first four months of this year reached 2.35 million tons, up 30.3% year on year.
As the inventories in the upstream and downstream rubber industry chain are high, the inventories in the free trade zone will continue growing while the consumption of imports and inventories stays slow.
