RTAE: Rubber prices edge upwards amid Middle East turmoil

London – In its May digest, the Rubber Trade Association Europe (RTAE) reported that prices for benchmark natural rubber grade TSR 20 had “very gradually risen over the past four months” by about 18% – or 30 €cents/kg.

The pricing trend has not always be upwards, RTAE noting a couple of sharp drops – one in late March and another in mid-April – as well as a dip at the start of the year.

“As the US dollar strengthened and weakened quite sharply during March and April, these dips were likely because of exchange rate changes,” the association commented in the monthly report.

The TSR20 pricing chart, it added, “gives little clue” that the US and Israel have waged war on Iran since 28 Feb, or the subsequent impact on shipping through Straits of Hormuz.

While the effect on rubber prices “appears limited,” RTAE cited a recent report of “upward pressure on natural rubber latex prices from consumer demand that may be anticipating shortages in synthetic nitrile.”

Continued the London-based association, ‘afloat ‘stocks of synthetic rubbers from east Asian producers, such as those in South Korea, seem to be “satisfactory” right now.

However, it added that current and future synthetic rubber production “is likely to be constrained because of interrupted feedstock supplies from the Persian Gulf states.” 

Around 2,000 ships are trapped in the Persian Gulf, though many are specialist tankers rather than general cargo container ships used for rubber and latex, RTAE also observed.