"Although tappers were satisfied with the government's measures to shore up the rubber price, with rib smoked sheet quoted at Bt60 per kilogram and latex at Bt37-Bt38, they urged the government not to fix the rubber price at Bt60."

Well, the Junta did fix rubber sheet prices at Bt60/kg with its sale of 400,000 tons of rubber sheet to China to be delivered in 18 months. The farmers' COST OF PRODUCTION for rubber sheet is Bt65/kg. Now the farmers have threatened to stage a mass protest after the New Year for a demand for rubber sheet price to be set at 80 baht/kg. They are far from being satisfied, even with the additional 1,000 baht/rai handouts , and the Prayuth regime is far from resisting more concessions.

Looks like PM Prayuth has become a politician!

Actually the subsidy per rai with a maximum set to it was put into motion about two months ago already. It seemed better than to set a price of 80 Baht/ kg and pay that to middlemen.

So the government managed to set a price of 60B/kg for stuff to be delivered in 18 months time. Better than allowing the price which was quoted as below 40B/kg.

If for farmers the costs of production is still higher than the 60B/kg, the measures of the government to promote quality improvements and/or diversification may need to be stepped up a bit.

Of course, if you want the government to do nothing ... ...

Pretty soon, cars don't need tires on them. You just need wheel rims, they run perfectly on the rubber pavements in Thailand.

Only made possible in Thailand.

Sonneville track support system as used on the Channel tunnel and many other high-speed / heavily loaded railways (and other manufacturers) use rubber boots (not old wellies) to isolate the track from vibrations.

see spec below

Track design of the Tunnels include a Sonneville non-ballasted concrete track, consisting of UIC 60 kg/lm rails, mounted on pairs of independent concrete support blocks, spaced at 60 cm

centres along the track. Rails are isolated from blocks by nylon clips and rubber Oring.

Each block rests on a 12 mm thick micro-cellular pad inside a rubber boot and cast into the trackbase concrete. This system intends to maintain high geometric tolerances and to provide two levels of resilience between the rail and the invert of the tunnels. Design speeds are 200 km/h

for TGVs through trains and 160 km/h for shuttles.In the Terminals, the track is ballasted.

But sending Thai's to the moon is much more interesting. Especially if they are young ladies who can maintain a high rate of vibrations.

How do they get such a discrepancy in volume of rubber required for 1 km of road. 3.5 tonnes or 700 kg? 700 kg = .7 tonne (ton). This project has stopped before it had a chance

Substituting rubber for cement in the mixing of concrete may just be a stretch too far.

old tires are used in many places in the world as a filler in road paving

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=131175

Old tyres are used in Thailand to put on old cars and old motorbikes !!!

Reality is the economics isn't working. Rather than try and mess with the economics, the government should look at alternative crops to grow and an exit strategy for the farmers? Maybe a subsidy for another crop until the farmers can get a return on the crop?

Maybe they should build rubber rooms.

If I keep reading about all the clever ideas these guys come up with everyday, I know I'm gonna need one.

Rubber rooms. That's where they put crazy people so they can't hurt themselves. Where do you put 65 million rubber rooms?

.

Some people could use a new house.

But only a few hundred are needed, for the guys in charge.

And there's always rubber bullets. The junta could place a sizable order there.

And rubber stamps, for all their schemes.

And rubber checks to pay for their schemes.

And what about rubber necking? There's a lot of that at all the accident scenes in LOS. Certainly there's a market for rubber there.

Enormous amounts of rubber(wood) enter Thailand illegally from e.g. Cambodia. Big business.

Govt urged to build roads and rail lines using Thai rubber.

Please not.
Train Rails should best made to be from very good, alloyed, hard steel.

just bouncing this up

what happens if it ever gets cold and then heats up rather quickly?

if it gets really hot....can it get sticky?

i can't wait to plant my first rubber tree....i'm gonna be rich!!!