TOKYO (Nov 24): Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures ended down 3.1% on Tuesday, tracking Shanghai futures that traded most of the day weaker amid concerns about supply glut, brokers said.
Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) futures, which set the tone for tyre rubber prices in Southeast Asia, are trading near their lowest levels in more than six years, and sources say global natural rubber output could drop again in 2015 as low prices curtail tapping.
Disruption in tapping in Indonesia, the world’s second-biggest producing country, could lead to a 10% drop in its rubber production in 2015, Moenardji Soedargo, chairman of the Indonesian Rubber Association said.
The benchmark Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery <0#2JRU:> finished 5 yen lower at 154.7 yen per kg. The November contract expired on Tuesday at 139.8 yen, down 2.2 yen.
“Sluggish Shanghai futures helped send TOCOM lower today,” said a source with a Tokyo-based broker.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery rose 70 yuan to finish at 10,395 yuan per tonne after trading most of the day lower. The contract had fallen 2.9% in overnight trade on Monday.
China’s natural rubber imports in October rose 18.8% from a year earlier to 212,190 tonnes, while synthetic rubber imports gained 63.3% to 193,999 tonnes, official customs figures showed.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for December delivery last traded at 114.10 US cents per kg, down 0.2 cent.
