Rubber prices shot up from a low of $1.50 per kilo last September to $2.50 this past January, forcing suppliers of rubber soles to raise their own prices by a minimum of 10 percent. Among other factors, the price hike was due to floods in Thailand late last year, increases in crude oil prices and the depreciation of the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen, according to a keen observer of the shoe industry, Ravinder Paul. He says that makers of rubber soles would need to increase their prices by 15 percent, but the sluggishness in shoe manufacturing in some parts of the world has led them to make a compromise. He feels that the trend in rubber prices will continue upward. Rubber prices have been constantly declining from a peak of $5.50 per kilo in 2011, following an increase in production capacities since 2005. Lower demand from China contributed to the decline in the past two years.

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