VINACHEM

Rubber firms are facing mounting hardships driven by a lack of orders, high borrowing costs, and large tax refunds having yet to be paid to them.

Huynh Van Bao, deputy chairman of Vietnam Rubber Association, has noted that rubber production and trading units are encountering difficulties on all sides. Amid global headwinds the demand for rubber has sunk, leading to a supply and demand imbalance.

This has caused both the rubber price and order intake to diminish, creating market pressures as most Vietnamese rubber is bound for export, while domestic consumption just accounts for 15 per cent of the total production output.

This has also entailed difficulties associated with human resources working at businesses producing items from rubber latex.

Sinking finance has been preventing firms from offering their labourers better wages. Such workers earn around $230 per month on average versus tough working conditions, leaving many labourers to quit their jobs and shift to other works.

The biggest difficulty to rubber firms at present is depleting capital sources, putting businesses in a ‘dilemma’.

In addition, many natural rubber export firms report having yet to receive tax refunds despite having sent many proposals.

The VAT tax refund of these firms is approximately $10.8 million.  – Rubber firms are facing mounting hardships driven by a lack of orders, high borrowing costs, and large tax refunds having yet to be paid to them. – VNN –