CHENNAI, Oct 17: Tamil Nadu has overtaken Maharashtra in terms of number of people employed in rubber industry in the state despite the latter having a large number of industries for the commodity, says an Assocham study.
Maharashtra has about 379 rubber product factories employing 29,600 people, while Tamil Nadu has a share of 36,000 people working at 344 rubber product factories, the study said.
Across the rubber product industries present in the country, over 1.92 lakh people are employed and of the total 2,700 industries, 2,300 are under operation.
Maharashtra has a total of 458 rubber product industries, of which 379 are operating and of the total 449 industries, 344 are operating in Tamil Nadu, it said.
Following Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Kerala has the third highest share of about 13 per cent in terms of rubber factories (317) under operation, followed by Andhra Pradesh with eight per cent (194), Gujarat with six per cent (150) factories, it said.
The study also said that the import of natural rubber in India in value terms is likely to touch USD 1,107 million growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32 per cent by the end of current financial year.
India imports about 42 per cent of natural rubber products from Indonesia, followed by Thailand (26 per cent) and Vietnam (24 per cent), the study said.
Assochan Secretary General D S Rawat said India has to immediately address the issue of rising natural rubber imports and augmenting domestic production as the demand supply gap is further expected to increase by 20 per cent.
Increase in domestic prices due to shortage of domestically available natural rubber during peak season owing to fall in production is a point of concern for downstream industries as natural rubber is main raw material, the study said.
“… The industry has no option but to look at alternative sources of raw material from abroad as international prices might be lower than domestic ones”, it added. (PTI)
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