TOKYO (Nov 9): Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures fell further on Thursday, weighed down by a decline in Shanghai futures and worries over sluggish global demand for rubber, brokers said.
TOCOM has also been hit by profit-taking, after touching a near one-month high of 207 yen on Tuesday.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery finished 1.6 yen lower at 203.1 yen (US$1.79) per kg.
Crude rubber inventories at Japanese ports stood at 5,784 tonnes as of Oct 20, up 9.1% from the last inventory date, data from the Rubber Trade Association of Japan showed on Thursday.
Malaysia’s industrial production in September expanded at a pace well below expectations, as growth slowed across all sub-sectors like petroleum, chemical, rubber and plastic products.
The most active rubber contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for January delivery fell 110 yuan to finish at 13,805 yuan (US$2,082) per tonne. The contract also touched a five-week high of 14,235 yuan on Monday.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore’s SICOM exchange for December delivery last traded at 142.80 U.S. cents per kg, down 1 cent.
In market news, China has launched an antidumping probe into imports of a synthetic rubber called nitrile rubber from South Korea and Japan, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Thursday.
(US$1 = 113.5800 yen)
(US$1 = 6.6309 Chinese yuan)
