Part Two. Trade of natural rubber products in H1
China’s rubber product manufacturing sector has seen constantly improving profitability since the beginning of this year.
Statistics show output value of the sector gained 6.47% year on year in the first half of 2012. Aggregate tire output increased 2.59% year on year, with the year-on-year growth rates of radial tires and all-steel radial tires at 3.13% and 6.55% respectively. Radial tires accounted for 87.23% ofChina’s total tire production during the period, up 0.46 percentage points from the corresponding period of last year.
Meanwhile, operating turnover of the rubber product manufacturing sector grew 6.26% year on year in the first half of 2012. Some 34.23% of the country’s tire products were delivered to overseas markets during the period, up 1.48 percentage points year on year, with the export value up 11.29% year on year.
-- Tire Price Index Trajectory
The index tracking prices of all-steel radial tires stood at 105.05 points in the first half, down 0.75 basis points year on year, while that for semi-steel sedan tires reached 101.32 points, down 0.67 basis points from the same period of last year.
The index, at the base level of 100, is chiefly based on the market prices of four truck radial tires (12.00R20-18PR, 11.00R20-16PR, 12R22.5-16PR, and 8.25R16-16PR) and four sedan radial tires (215/55R16, 205/55R16, 195/55R15, and 165/70R14).
-- China Auto Output & Sales
According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM),Chinaproduced 8.00 million vehicles and sold 8.024 million vehicles in the first half of this year, up 3.19% and 1.70% year on year.
Specifically, passenger vehicle output surged 7.05% year on year to 6.34 million units, while sales of passenger vehicles gained 5.48% year on year to 6.33 million units in the first six months of 2012.
Some 1.69 million commercial vehicles were sold inChinain the January-June period, a fall of 10.31% year on year, while output of such vehicles came to 1.66 million units during the same period, down 9.33% year on year.
The following two charts separately showChina’s auto output and sales each month since 2005:
(Contributed by Huo Bing, vice general manager of Yunnan Gaoshen Rubber Co; edited by Olivia, olivia@tireworld.com.cn)
