The Study Of The Natural Rubber Industry In Southeast Asia

Natural rubber is a worldwide bulk industrial raw materials which is one of the four major scarce industrial raw materials also including oil, iron ore and coal and is a strategic materials for national defense and national economy. While world rubber industry shifts to Asia, Asia has become the natural rubber consumption center. Southeast Asia is the world’s natural rubber production base whose leading position in the international natural rubber market will be further strengthened. In2001, China became the world’s largest importer of natural rubber and natural rubber imports increased year by year. Trade dependence on natural rubber imported from Southeast Asia increases so fast that rubber industry in China is facing severe natural rubber safety issues.In such international and domestic situation, natural rubber industry in Southeast Asia becomes the focus of attention. The paper briefly reviews the history of the natural rubber industry in Southeast Asian rubber producing counties and elaborates the status and development trends of the natural rubber industry in Southeast Asia which includes natural rubber planting area, production, productivity and the trends of natural rubber industry in Southeast Asian rubber producing countries. This paper also analyzes the Southeast Asian natural rubber industry upgrading, through the analysis of Malaysian natural rubber industry upgrading path to provide a template of industrial upgrading for other Southeast Asian natural rubber producing countries which also has some referential significance to China’s natural rubber industry.Based on the study of the natural rubber industry in Southeast Asia, the paper starts to explore the natural rubber industry cooperation between China and Southeast Asia. This paper analyzes the status and problems of the natural rubber industry cooperation between China and Southeast Asia and proposes appropriate countermeasures which has a certain referential significance to China’s natural rubber industry "going out" strategy. If China’s natural rubber industry can overcome the problems that it faces, it would have the ownership advantages, internalization advantages and location advantages which couples with the resource advantages of natural rubber industry in Southeast Asia, regional natural rubber industry cooperation between China and Southeast Asia has a broad prospect.