Rubber jumps to 11-week high as China's imports surge to record

ERJ staff report (TP)

Tokyo − Rubber jumped to the highest level in more than two months after China’s imports surged to a record last month, indicating demand from the world’s largest user is increasing, reported Aya Takada for Bloomberg.

Futures for delivery in May on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange advanced 1.9 percent to end at 281.1 yen (€1.98) a kg, the highest settlement since 20 September. Today’s (9 December) rally pared losses this year to 7.1 percent.

China’s imports of natural rubber rose to 270,000 tonnes last month, data from the General Administration of Customs in Beijing showed 8 December. That’s 42 percent higher from October and up 25 percent from the same period last year. Purchases in the first 11 months climbed 8.2 percent to 2.13m tonnes.

“The data showing the strength of Chinese demand gave a boost to futures,” said Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at JSC Corp., a research company in Tokyo.

Futures also climbed as Japan’s currency slid to near a six-month low against the dollar, raising the appeal of yen-denominated contracts, Shigemoto said. The yen today fell to 103.22 a dollar as US jobs grew more than economists’ forecast and joblessness shrank to a five-year low of 7 percent.

The contract for May delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained 1.5 percent to close at 19,830 yuan (€2,379) a tonne. Thai rubber free-on-board added 0.6 percent to 82.45 baht (€1.86) a kg today (9 December), according to the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand.

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