[Geofin Comtrade] Daily report on Natural Rubber: June 2, 2016

MARKET COMMENTARY

Natural rubber stayed under pressure in the local as well as international markets. TOCOM rubber futures hit a one week low on Thursday tracking a firmer yen against the US dollar and decline in equities. However, it was seen paring initial losses. SHFE rubber futures, in the meantime, inched up following the previous day’s slump.

In the Indian markets on Wednesday, weakness in the major overseas market along with expectations of higher imports dampened the sentiments in the natural rubber market. However, thin supplies and heavy rains in the major natural rubber growing areas in Kerala lend support.

MARKET NEWS

The Rubber Board has advised growers tapping once a week to cut production cost, the board said in a release today. “In rubber holdings, a major share of expenditure is for tapping, and there is a shortage for tappers also,” the release said. The advisory is in the wake of prevailing low prices of rubber in domestic markets, the Board said.

China may open up its commodities futures markets to overseas and financial investors, the country’s securities regulator said, as the world’s top consumer of many raw materials seeks to play a larger role in setting global commodities prices.

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 tonne 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.

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Geofin Comtrade