[Geofin Comtrade] Daily report on Natural Rubber: May 18, 2016

MARKET COMMENTARY

A mixed trend is being witnessed in the major overseas natural rubber market on Wednesday. TOCOM rubber futures pared initial gains and inched lower while SHFE rubber futures traded rather steady. Lingering worries over demand from the top consumer China weighed on, though firm crude oil prices lend lower level support.

In the Indian markets on Tuesday, natural rubber prices rose as heavy pre-monsoons showers hit the major rubber growing areas in Kerala. On NMCE, the front month June rubber futures gained nearly four per cent.

MARKET NEWS

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd has set up a trading arm in Singapore to facilitate natural rubber imports, its Chairman and Managing Director Raghupati Singhania said.

Natural rubber output from the world’s top producing countries will see a nominal rise of about 1.3% in the calendar year 2016 to 11.2 mln tn as a long phase of low prices has hurt planting of the cash crop, Sheela Thomas, secretary-general of the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries, said.

China’s rubber imports (both natural and synthetic) in April amounted to 500000 tonnes, down 7.4 percent from a month earlier.

An Action Taken Report (ATR) of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on commerce chaired by ChandanMitra has criticised the Centre for its indifferent attitude towards natural rubber (NR). The report says that the government has been indifferent to the woes of rubber farmers and permitted excess imports, delayed the national policy on rubber and kept key posts in the state-run Rubber Board vacant for more than two years.

According to a deputy chairman of the Rubber Holder Co-operatives Federation of Thailand,the production of natural rubber has fallen about 50% from January to April year-on-year due to the drought.

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Geofin Comtrade