KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market is expected to move within a narrow range this week if there are no improvements in the near term in the crude oil prices, currency movements and regional rubber of physical and futures markets, said a dealer. He said the demand and supply fundamentals for most commodities had weakened and these had also affected the natural rubber (NR) prices. “Next week, the market will likely be quiet due to the closure of the Tokyo Commodity Exchange for most of the days, so traders will not have a reference price,” he told Bernama.
Another dealer said the current low NR prices would pose a greater challenge to smallholders as they were now below production costs. “Even though rubberproducing countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are cooperating to increase consumption of rubber, we hope the governments can support the smallholders like offering incentives and subsidies. “It is difficult to go against the global market forces which are experiencing a slowdown especially top consumer China, but we hope they (smallholders) can remain in this market with the help from the authorities,” he said. On a Thursday-to-Wednesday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s sellers’ official physical price for tyregrade SMR 20 fell 19 sen to 479.50 sen a kg, recording the lowest price in 2015.
Latex-in-bulk dropped 22 sen to 331.50 sen a kg. Meanwhile on a Wednesday-to- Wednesday basis, the unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 eased 19 sen to 480.50 sen a kg and latex-in-bulk declined 18.5 sen to 334.50 sen a kg.
The market was traded for half-day on Thursday and was closed on Friday for the New Year holiday.
