KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market is likely to trend lower next week on growing concerns over slowing demand from the commodity’s top consumers, China and India.
A dealer said China’s manufacturing activity, which fell to its lowest level in more than three years in November, sparked worries that the world’s second-largest economy might be slowing down, thus affecting imports for rubber.
“For India, its natural rubber imports in November was down by 14 per cent to 32,308 tonnes from the same period last year,” he added.
For the week just-ended, the local rubber market was on a downtrend, tracking the bearish performance of rubber futures prices on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
On a weekly basis, the local market traded mixed with the Malaysian Rubber Board’s noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 rising 1.5 sen at 489.5 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk declined 3.5 sen to 360 sen a kg.
The 5 pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 added 6.5 sen to 493.5 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk was three sen easier at 359 sen a kg.
