Bouncy Chinese rubber market could smack Vietnamese suppliers,Vietnam's exporters need to look at other markets to ensure profits, local newspaper Vietnam Investment Review said Monday.

China consumes more than 65 percent of Vietnam's rubber exports, but market fluctuations make it difficult to supply, said a representative from the state-owned Vietnam Rubber Corporation.

"The large percentage of rubber exports to China means local rubber exporters face certain risks. When there is a change, though small, in China's policy on the production of rubber or on vehicle tires, there will be immediate changes to the price of rubber imported from Vietnam," he said.

Another local rubber expert, secretary general of the Vietnam Rubber Association Tran Thi Thuy Hoa, said China, the world's largest rubber consumer, had boosted its plan to grow rubber trees and was ready to share its contracts with other rubber suppliers besides Vietnam. "It is also buying rubber from Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia and many other markets," she said.

China will remain Vietnam's key rubber importer in the future, she said, adding that Vietnam is planning to build more rubber processing plants in the coming years and boost rubber exports to European and African markets.

Vietnam, the world's fourth biggest natural rubber exporter, shipped abroad 697,000 tons of rubber, mainly to China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States, totaling nearly 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, up 18.7 percent and 58.3 percent, respectively, against 2005, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Source: Xinhua