Vietnam, the world's fourth biggest natural rubber exporter, is estimated to post rubber output of 700, 000 tons in 2010 and 1 million tons after the year, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Monday.

The country will increase its rubber tree acreage to 700,000 hectares by 2010 from current 478,000 hectares. It will also intensify investment in manufacturing more rubber-based products like automobile tires and tubes and gloves for both domestic consumption and export.

Domestic sales currently account for 12 percent of Vietnam's rubber output, and they are on the rise, the report said.

Vietnam exported 574,000 tons of rubber valued at 787 million U. S. dollars last year mainly to China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States, up 11.9 percent and 31.9 percent, respectively. It sold overseas 221,000 tons of the product worth 376 million dollars in the first five months of this year, recording respective year-on-year surges of 40.5 percent and 101.3 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

The world is estimated to produce over 11 million tons of natural rubber in 2020, while the global demand for the products in the year will stand at 13.8 million tons, the newspaper said. In 2020, natural rubber will represent some 37 percent of the total global production of natural and synthetic rubber.

Eight countries including Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea made up 87.3 percent of the world's natural rubber output, and 91.9 percent of the world's natural rubber export revenue in 2005, said the newspaper.

Source: Xinhua