A JAPAN-based tire manufacturing company has increased its local sourcing for rubber in the Philippines to 32 percent as of August of this year, from only six percent in 2012, an official said.
At present, Yokohama is the only car tire manufacturer in the Philippines.
"We are progressing and in the lighter prospect in the industry. When we recently had a talk with Yokohama, the new president told us that they already increased their local sourcing of rubber in the country from six percent in 2012 to 32 percent starting in August of this year,"
Sitti Amina M. Jain, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-National Rubber Industry Cluster coordinator said in Tuesday's press conference during the staging of the 2nd Philippine Rubber Investment and Market Encounter (Prime) 2015 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Lanang Premier.
Jain said that based on 2012's Yokohama local sourcing, it only sourced rubber at a very low percentage from the Philippines "due to the low quality of the country's natural rubber produced."
The remaining 94 percent of the company's need for rubber
were sourced from other rubber-producing countries like Indonesia and Thailand.
"What we did is we partnered with Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and we embark on the quality advocacy for rubber so we met with all the regions in Mindanao as well as Regions 4A, 4B and other regions in the Visayas," she said, adding that they already set up a rubber testing laboratory in Zamboanga City.
A laboratory has been set up by concerned government agencies with the Philippine Rubber Industry Association (Pria) to address the need for the country to improve quality of rubber.
According to Prime 2015 magazine released to reporters Tuesday, the laboratory testing provides an "objective evidences on the state and quality of rubber and rubber products, a scientific approach to ensure compliance to industry regulations and market requirements."
Jain added that Yokohama is willing to expand and increase it local sourcing in the Philippines for as long as the processor in the Philippines will comply with ISO 2000, standard for technical specified rubber.
“That’s why we set a rubber testing laboratory for the rubber processors in the country to have an avenue to check the quality of their products, if it is acceptable to the international standards,”
At present, Mindanao has a total of three rubber testing laboratory, these are the DOST laboratory in Zamboanga, which is being prioritized by the government to be ISO-accredited, Philippine Rubber Testing Center (PRTC) in University of Southern Mindanao, and Department of Agriculture (DA)-operated rubber laboratory in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Yokohama, is also in the process of expanding by 2017 as they are planning to produce some 60,000 tires per day. According to the tire manufacturer, the expansion of the manufacturing plant which will be placed here in the Philippines will be the biggest in all the Yokohama plants, even bigger than the mother plant based in Japan.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Philippines is producing a total of 453,052.00 metric tons (MT) of rubber as of 2014. Biggest bulk of the total rubber production is contributed by Mindanao.
The Mindanao’s rubber-producing regions are Zamboanga Peninsula (191,610.00), Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (54,051.00), Northern Mindanao (11,873.00), Soccksargen (173,977.00), Davao Region (10,849.00), and Caraga Region (10,509.00).