Natural rubber prices remain under pressure

London – Natural rubber (NR) markets have shown signs of recovery from ‘multi-year lows’ reached at the end of October, but remained under pressure during the three weeks to 4 Nov.

Almost all futures and physical markets monitored by ERJ reported declines during the review period, despite a V-shaped recovery from a recent fall, driven by oversupply and weaker demand from major consuming countries.

In Shanghai, rubber contracts for January delivery closed 4.2% lower than 14 Oct, as reports of weaker manufacturing performance and Covid lockdowns hit the Chinese commodity market.

Rubber futures in Osaka and Singapore were also down sharply, tracking SHFE developments amid persistent signs of weakness in the global economy.

Physical rubber markets continued on a downward track during the three weeks, as supply remained strong amid tepid demand from tire makers.

Kuala Lumpur latex was the only commodity to make marginal gains, due in part to increasing gloves demand as Covid cases flared up in China in early November.