Drought In Southwest China Has Led To Tight Supplies Of Rubber And Other Materials.

The drought in Southwest China has had an important impact on Jiangsu's import and export, especially in the import and export of natural rubber and other bulk commodities.

Nanjing Customs recently provided import and export data for the first quarter of this year. In the first quarter, the total import volume of natural rubber in Jiangsu increased by 52.7%, but the price increased by 1.27 times.

In the first quarter, the average import price of natural rubber accelerated on the basis of the continuous upward trend since last May, reaching $2854 per ton in March this year, an increase of 54.8% over the same period last year, a 10.8% increase of the ring.

Of these, 66.3% of imports came from Thailand, an increase of 49.6%.

The natural rubber prices continue to rise for 10 months. In addition to the rapid development of the automobile industry and the decrease in the import tax rate of some imported varieties, the main natural rubber producing areas suffer from natural disasters of varying degrees.

ANRPC (Association of natural rubber producers) said that although the effective planting area of natural rubber expanded from 7 million hectares in 2008 to 7 million 130 thousand hectares in 2009, the impact of extreme weather in recent years reduced the average yield per unit area and the global natural rubber supply fell 5.1% in 2009.

Meteorological data show that the recent major rubber producing countries in northern Thailand and India also have more severe dry weather, and Thailand's political turmoil, a variety of adverse factors leading to natural rubber supply this year.

Yunnan region, which accounts for 1/3 of the national natural rubber output, is expected to reduce production of natural rubber by about 20% this year.

In fact, in recent years, China's natural rubber self-sufficiency rate has been declining, which is less than 30% of the international strategic safety warning line.

Nanjing customs analysts believe that this means that many unfavorable factors will further enhance the external dependence of China's natural rubber.

In fact, the risk of China's natural rubber import prices continues to rise has shown that: Based on the low concentration and overcapacity of the domestic tire industry, the ability to pfer the cost to the downstream enterprises is weak, and the cost of raw materials has risen substantially, and the profits of the tire companies have dropped sharply.

Nanjing customs statistics show that in the fourth quarter of 2009, some domestic tire enterprises have dropped more than 20% before tax profit, and many small and medium-sized truck tire manufacturers have stopped production.

Continuous Southwest drought, its conduction effect even more Jiangsu port coal imports.

Nanjing customs statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, Jiangsu Port imported 4 million 140 thousand tons of coal, valued at 420 million US dollars, up 4.9 times and 3.2 times respectively.

The main reason behind this is the strong demand for domestic coal, insufficient supply and tighter year by year. Especially since last year, Shanxi has rectified coal mines, and the maintenance of Daqin line has lasted for 35 days, resulting in a 15% decline in domestic coal pportation. And after the new year's day, the price of domestic coal continues to rise.

Water and electricity accounts for nearly 50% of the total hydropower in the five provinces and cities in Southwest China. The continuous drought has led to a marked decline in the local water power generation and an obvious increase in the demand for supplementary power generation, which has led to a substantial increase in the demand for electric coal.

In view of this, as a major coal consumption province, Luo Zhijun, governor of Jiangsu, led a delegation to Shaanxi in April 7th, and signed the "framework agreement for strengthening strategic cooperation in energy and other advantageous industries".

This is a month ahead of the news of Jiangsu's "governor looking for coal".