Natural rubber leading consuming countries 2014-2018
This statistic shows the leading countries worldwide by consumption of natural rubber from 2014 to 2018. Japan ranked fifth in 2018, where around 706,000 metric tons of natural rubber were consumed that year. The United States is the world's third largest consumer of natural rubber.
Natural rubber
Natural rubber comes from the Pará rubber tree, or the sharinga tree, commonly referred to as simply the rubber tree. It has many uses due to being highly waterproof, resilient, and stretchy. Accordingly, the global consumption of natural rubber is considerable. In 1990, natural rubber consumption amounted to 5.2 million metric tons, and in 2018, it reached a peak of 13.8 million metric tons, which is nearly tripled consumption in 28 years.
China is by far the largest consumer of natural rubber worldwide, consuming a peak of 5.5 million metric tons in 2018. China uses natural rubber for a variety of manufacturing uses, including automobile and tire manufacturing, in particular. While China consumes such a large quantity of natural rubber, their production only accounts for a portion of their consumption. It is forecast that by 2020, China will produce some 1.4 million metric tons of the material, in comparison, China produced just 837,000 metric tons in 2018. While the forecasted production increase is considerable, this only accounts for approximately one quarter of their consumption. China also invests considerably in research and development of rubber and plastics product manufacturing.
Natural rubber production has followed consumption patterns quite similarly. In 2016, some 12.4 million metric tons of natural rubber was produced worldwide, a considerable increase since 2000, when the global natural rubber production was 6.8 million metric tons.
Natural rubber
Natural rubber comes from the Pará rubber tree, or the sharinga tree, commonly referred to as simply the rubber tree. It has many uses due to being highly waterproof, resilient, and stretchy. Accordingly, the global consumption of natural rubber is considerable. In 1990, natural rubber consumption amounted to 5.2 million metric tons, and in 2018, it reached a peak of 13.8 million metric tons, which is nearly tripled consumption in 28 years.
China is by far the largest consumer of natural rubber worldwide, consuming a peak of 5.5 million metric tons in 2018. China uses natural rubber for a variety of manufacturing uses, including automobile and tire manufacturing, in particular. While China consumes such a large quantity of natural rubber, their production only accounts for a portion of their consumption. It is forecast that by 2020, China will produce some 1.4 million metric tons of the material, in comparison, China produced just 837,000 metric tons in 2018. While the forecasted production increase is considerable, this only accounts for approximately one quarter of their consumption. China also invests considerably in research and development of rubber and plastics product manufacturing.
Natural rubber production has followed consumption patterns quite similarly. In 2016, some 12.4 million metric tons of natural rubber was produced worldwide, a considerable increase since 2000, when the global natural rubber production was 6.8 million metric tons.
