[Geofin Comtrade] Daily report on Natural Rubber: December 29, 2015

MARKET COMMENTARY

Bearishness prevailed in the natural rubber market. On Tuesday, the commodity in the major overseas market is seen stretching the previous session losses. TOCOM rubber futures slid with the most active June rubber futures falling over one per cent to hit one month low. Amidst lingering worries over demand from China, investors probably chose to stay on the sidelines as holiday mood set in. In the Indian market, meanwhile, on Monday upticks were seen in the spot and futures market as market reopened after Christmas holidays. However, trades stayed thin and the broad underlying sentiments stayed feeble.

MARKET NEWS

Thailand’s Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives will lend another 5 billion baht to rubber farmers seeking to do extra jobs during the ongoing price slump.

Rubber inventories in the warehouses monitored by SHFE rose 2.4 per cent to 240189 tonnes last Friday from a week earlier.

New plantings of rubber have been on a decline over the last three years and were down around 19% in 2014-15 (Apr-Mar), the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said.The total area under newly planted and replanted rubber trees was at 32,000 ha in 2014-15, down 11.1% from 36,000 ha a year ago.

India’s natural rubber production in November declined 16.7 percent to 50000tonnes according to the data from the Rubber Board. Imports declined as well by 13.7 per cent to 37445 tonnes.

Thailand on Tuesday approved $139 million in additional loans to help rubber farmers in the Southeast Asian country hit by weak global prices of the commodity.

Following the meeting of International Rubber Tripartite Council, officials have pledged to establish a new regional rubber trading platform that could be up and running by June 2016. Also, it has asked upon to implement a scheme in 2016 that would limit rubber supplied to market.

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Geofin Comtrade