Northeast gets grip on rubber for tyres

CHENNAI: Govt and industry's efforts to extend natural rubber plantation to the northeastern states has started to bear fruit with the region's (Tripura, Assam & Meghalaya) share in total production more than doubling to 17.5% in 2023-24 from 7.8% in 2013-14.Tripura's rubber production has jumped to 91,500 tonne from 39,000 tonne in 10 years, data from All India Rubber Industries Association showed. During this period, top source Kerala's production fell to 6.1 lakh tonne from 6.5 lakh tonne. Similarly, Assam's production has grown to 46,500 tonne from 13,600 tonne, while Meghalaya is at 11,775 tonne, up from 7,570 tonne a decade ago.

Domestic natural rubber production is around 8.5 lakh tonne with Northeast contributing about 1.5 lakh tonne.

"Given that India's total rubber requirement is 14.5 lakh tonne, tyre companies are looking at Northeast for additional sourcing. Production in Kerala has reached its peak, so Northeast has potential for expansion," All India Rubber Industries Association president Shashi Singh said."Natural rubber production in Tripura and Assam has risen in the last couple of years, and the quality has also seen some improvement, leading to higher offtake by the tyre industry and Apollo Tyres," said Apollo Tyre president & chief business officer Sunam Sarkar.

Northeast sourcing is seeing an uptick even though the region has not yet hit its peak planned coverage of 200,000 hectares."This is our fifth year in reckoning and out of 2 lakh hectares, which was the layout of the plan, we are at 70,000-75,000 hectare. We are increasing our buying from Northeast apart from buying from the traditional (plantations) down south," added JK Tyre MD Anshuman Singhania.According to Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) in the first four years of the Indian Natural Rubber Operations for Assisted Development (INROAD) project (FY22-25), an area of 1.25 lakh hectares has been covered under new rubber plantations across 94 districts in Northeast and parts of West Bengal.