Asian rubber markets went south throughout the week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its forecast on the global economic growth this year to 3.3% from 3.6% it predicted in July early in the week, together with a warning by the IMF to the U.S. and European policy makers for fixing their economic failure, despite an attempt of the China’s Central Bank to pump a load of cash into the country’s banking system later in the week.
Nonetheless, it is expected that market players on rubber futures still took a target of 300,000 tons cut back by Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia into account during the week, but they had to liquidate their some long positions during the week due to global economic uncertainty at present.
IRCo’s DCP rose from Monday to Tuesday before it would later fall consecutively from Wednesday to stay at 310.13 US cents/kg on Friday, or down 1.99 US cents/kg, or a bit lost of 0.64% compared with its initial price at 312.02 US cents/kg on Monday. Meanwhile, Thailand RSS-3 also fell from 333.39 US cents/kg on Monday to 327.84 US cents/kg on Friday, or down 5.55 US cents/kg, or 1.66% lower than its settlement price on Monday.
Furthermore, Thai STR-20 also slid to 301.76 US cent/kg on Friday from 307.96 US cents/kg on Monday, or lost 2.01%. Malaysia SMR20 also settled 6.00 US cents/kg lower at 308.00 US cents/kg on Friday compared with its settlement price on Monday. Likewise, Indonesia SIR20 fell a bit to 301.00 US cents/kg on Friday from 302.00 US cents/kg on Monday, or down 0.33%.
The benchmark rubber contract for March delivery on TOCOM settled lower at 264.50 yen/kg on Friday, or lost 9.10 yen/kg, or 3.33% compared with its settlement price at 273.60 yen/kg on Tuesday. On the contrary, AFET RSS-3 for May delivery rose from 102.00 THB/kg on Monday to 102.90 THB/kg on Friday, or gained 0.90 THB/kg, or up 0.88%. Meanwhile, Shanghai Futures Commodity Exchange was also closed higher at 25,540.00 Yuan/ton, or 955.00 Yuan/ton (3.88%) higher than its settlement price at 24,585.00 Yuan/ton on Monday.
NR supply is expected to be tight in the coming weeks as main rubber production regions inIndonesia are entering the dry wintering season, while Thailand and Malaysia are in the rainy season.
IRCo
