Asian rubber markets settled mostly lower last week amid a strengthening yen against the dollar, and the slow growth in Chinese manufacturing activities in February 2013 weighed on NR prices in the region. Meanwhile, the news on high rubber stocks in Qingdao and Shanghai Future Exchange warehouses also dampened rubber sentiment during the week.
IRCo’s DCP fell 7.97 US cents/kg to 293.60 US cents/kg on Friday, or 2.64% lower than its DCP at 301.57 US cents/kg on Monday. Meanwhile, Thai RSS-3 slipped a bit to 299.16 US cent/kg on Friday from 301.04 US cents/kg on Tuesday (Monday was a public holiday inThailand), or lost 1.88 US cents/kg or 0.62%. Thailand STR-20 also dropped slightly to 292.61 US cents/kg on Friday, or down 2.07 US cents/kg, or 0.70% lower than its settlement price at 294.68 US cents/kg on Tuesday. In the meantime, Malaysia SMR20 as well as Indonesia SIR20 also experienced losses during the week. Indonesia SIR20 was down to 286.00 US cents/kg on Friday, or 7.00 US cents/kg or 2.39% lower than its settlement price at 293.00 US cents/kg on Monday. Similarly, Malaysia SMR20 also settled lower at 295.00 US cents/kg on Friday, or 7.00 US cents/kg or 2.32% lower than its settlement price on Monday at 302.00 US cents/kg.
The benchmark rubber contract for August delivery on TOCOM settled at 284.10 yen/kg on Friday, 14.30 US cents/kg or 4.79% lower than its settlement price at 298.40 yen/kg on Monday. In addition, the Shanghai Futures Commodity Exchange for September delivery also finished the week lower at 24,035.00 Yuan/ton, or 700.00 Yuan/ton or 2.83% lower than its settlement price at 24,735.00 Yuan/ton on Monday. On the contrary, AFET RSS-3 for October delivery rose a bit to 93.20 THB/kg on Friday, or a slightly gain of 0.20 THB/kg or 0.22% higher than its initial price at 93.00 THB/kg on Monday.
NR supply is expected to remain tight in the coming week as main rubber production regions inThailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are expected to experience inclement weather.
Source: IRCo
