Natural rubber prices continue to slide

London – Natural rubber buyers seemed unswayed by a proposal for new output curbs among the three main producer countries or efforts by supplier bodies to talk up the market, as prices continued to slide in Asian trading centres.

In recent weeks, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries and the International Rubber Consortium (IRCo) forecast price recovery on the back of weather-related supply-disruptions and improved market sentiment, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have signalled a new plan to limit NR exports.

However, ERJ’s latest snapshot of Far East markets shows that prices are continuing to fall with little sign of recovery from the wholesale reverses we reported just over a month ago.

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the closing price for RU1709 – the most heavily traded NR future – fell 12.8% since the start of April to close the trading week ended 5 May at Yuan14,080/tonne.

And Japan’s TOCOM exchange saw back-month prices for reference RSS3 materials fall by 16.5% to Yen218.0/kg between 29 March and 26 April.

In Bangkok, prices for RSS1 and RSS3 grades dropped by 7.6% to $ $223.10/100kg while RSS3 fell 7.7% to $219.75/100kg between 31 March and 5 May.

In Kuala Lumpur, prices for SMR-20 fell by 16.0% to $153.25/100kg over the same trading period. Latex prices, meanwhile, slumped 18.9% to $144.40 also as of 5 May.