Date:20/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/20/stories/2006122005592000.htm

Business

Rubber show in Chennai

Special Correspondent

The exhibition will be held from January 18 to 20 at Trade Centre

Kochi: The All-India Rubber Industries Association, an apex body of rubber industries in the country, together with the Chemical and Allied Products Export Promotion Council of India, Union Ministry of Commerce, is organising a rubber show, said to be Asia's largest, at the Chennai Trade Centre Conference Hall from January 18 to 20.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, N. Radhakrishnan and Ketan Joshi of the association said the exhibition would focus on significant areas of the rubber sector.

Listing the areas, they said keeping pace with the economy, the Indian rubber industry was expanding fast. Modern machineries and testing equipment were required for enhancing the production process to make it globally competitive.

Need for value addition

The Indian passenger car production had crossed the 1.25-million mark this year and would continue to grow rapidly to 3 million in three years.

Unlike large rubber growing countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, Indian growers were in an advantageous position, as there existed a user industry in India, which consumed the entire rubber production. Indian natural rubber exporters enjoyed the advantage of exporting rubber at their will, considering the differential between Indian and global markets.

They said the need of the hour was to motivate the Indian plantation sector to have a committed view of the global market and persuade them to procure cheaper latex or rubber from other countries, process it and resell in India or abroad. Value addition should be the mantra for the new confident rubber grower in India, as they possessed the know-how to process the best quality rubber in the world.

Brand image

They said a brand image for Indian rubber would be welcome. The expo would provide an ideal opportunity to growers and processors to exchange their views with their counterparts in the world and understand where the world of natural rubber was heading.

In the second part of the event, experts from all over the world would present 42 papers.

They said nearly 1,500 foreign delegates were expected to attend the buyer-seller meet.

As many as 10,000 people from all parts of the world were expected at the exhibition.

Pavilions of China, Germany, Sri Lanka and the Rubber Board would be there.