Vietnam rubber export market

China is a potential market for Vietnam’s rubber exports in recent years with a record turnover.

Rubber export rate last year
In 2022, although Vietnam’s rubber exports reached a record turnover of over 3.31 billion USD, compared to 2021, the volume of rubber still decreased. This shows that the export price per ton of latex is only 40% lower than before.
The average export price of rubber in 2022 is only US$1,547/ton, down 7.8% compared to 2021. Faced with high USD exchange rate fluctuations while the price of latex has decreased, the correlation between production costs has become unbalanced.
According to the Vietnam Rubber Association, the global demand for rubber is gradually recovering, which is also a factor to help promote rubber exports next year.
According to the statistical report, in June 2022, the latex price of the rubber industry has increased sharply after the prolonged covid 19 epidemic. In the last 3 months of 2022, due to the impact of the economic and political situation, the price of rubber has dropped very deeply.
In addition, fluctuations in exchange rates along with domestic tax policies have unintentionally hindered the development of Vietnam’s rubber exports.
Faced with fluctuations in the high USD exchange rate, while the rubber latex price fell below the floor level, the correlation between production cost and selling price was unbalanced. At the same time, the difficult problem in enterprises, which is to pay taxes in advance, has also led to a low amount of rubber exports.
Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Rubber Association – Ms. Phan Thi Hong Van shared: The area of rubber trees in Vietnam currently has more than 939 thousand hectares, accounting for 7.2% of the total global rubber area.
The output of latex for exporting Vietnam’s rubber will reach over 1.26 million tons in 2022, accounting for 8.7% of global rubber production. The average yield of Vietnamese rubber reaches 1,682 kg/ha, helping Vietnam to rank first in Asia.
To explain the difference between the output of rubber latex has not yet reached 1.3 million tons, but the export volume has reached 2.14 million tons. According to Ms. Van, our country’s enterprises have imported millions of tons of raw natural rubber latex in 2022.
Therefore, although the export turnover is more than 3.3 billion USD, the trade surplus of the industry is less than 2 billion USD. Obviously, there is a serious imbalance between production, export and profit of the rubber chain.
China – Vietnam’s largest rubber export market
China is Vietnam’s largest rubber export market today. According to the report of the General Department of Customs in the first 11 months of 2022, the amount of rubber exports to China reached over 2 billion USD, equivalent to 70% of Vietnam’s rubber export value.
In December 2022, Vietnam continued to export to China more than 252,592 tons of rubber, equivalent to 342 million USD, up 13% in volume and 9% in value respectively compared to October 2022.
Accumulating 12 months of 2022, Vietnam has exported 1.8 million tons of rubber, equivalent to 2.9 billion USD, up 9% in output and 3% in value respectively over the same period in 2021.
Regarding rubber export prices, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in November 2022, the average export price of rubber reached 1,358 USD/ton, down 3.2% compared to October 2022 and down 18.2% compared to November 2021.
China is still Vietnam’s largest rubber consumption market, because Vietnam’s rubber exports to this country account for 82% of total rubber exports with 208,195 tons of rubber, equivalent to 276 million USD.
According to surveys on many other markets, rubber exports to some key markets such as Turkey, Malaysia, Russia… are still increasing compared to November 2021. However, in the Indian and Korean markets, rubber prices fell.
We know that 2022 is one of the difficult years for the rubber industry because the Covid-19 epidemic is still increasing strongly, then the price of rubber is reduced, the competition between exporting countries increases.
On the other hand, many of Vietnam’s rubber products are still heavily dependent on the Chinese market and in recent years this market has faced many other difficulties such as: real estate crisis, heat waves disrupting production activities, causing export prices to decrease.
In addition, restrictive measures to prevent Covid-19 also affect industrial production and consumption.
Although Vietnam’s rubber exports have been decreasing in recent years due to the influence of many factors, it is expected that in the year to 2023, the export volume will increase rapidly.