Rubber climbs from five-month low as weaker yen boosts appeal

ERJ staff report (TP)

Tokyo − The contract for delivery in June on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange advanced as much as 2.2 percent to 258.4 yen (€1.81) a kg and traded at 255.8 yen (€1.80) on 13 January. Futures reached the lowest settlement since 7 August, reported Aya Takada for Bloomberg.

The yen fell to 104.44 per dollar, retreating from a three-week high of 102.86 reached on 13 January, after a report showed US retail sales rose 0.2 percent in December, beating the 0.1 percent gain predicted by economists.

“The data added to confidence that the US economy is recovering, weakening the yen and boosting futures in Tokyo,” said Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at research company JSC Corp.

Futures for May delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 0.6 percent to 16,645 yuan (€2,021) a tonne. The most-active contract recovered after reaching 16,235 yuan (€1,971) this week, the lowest intra-day level since July 2009, amid concern that the market is oversupplied.

Inventories monitored by the Shanghai exchange rose to 190,158 tonnes on 9 January, the highest level since 2004, data from the bourse shows. China is the world’s largest consumer of the commodity used in tires.

Rubber free-on-board fell 1.3 percent to 77.25 baht (€1.72) a kg on 13 January, according to the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand.

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Full story from Bloomberg