By Sharifah Pirdaus Syed Ali
KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian rubber market is likely to be stable next week on on expectations of steady demand for the commodity in the coming months, said a dealer.
He said the positive sentiment brought on by a recent report on the favourable supply-demand situation for natural rubber (NR) is expected to continue supporting the price of the commodity.
The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) on April 12, reported that global demand for NR grew 7.6 per cent to 3.361 million tonnes in the first quarter of this year, from 3.123 million tonnes in the same quarter of 2017.
During the same reference period, the global supply of NR posted a 3.3 per cent growth at 3.152 million tonnes on a year-to-year basis.
“The firmer global oil prices will eventually increase the price of synthetic rubber which would also be positive for NR,” he told Bernama.
He said rubber prices would also move in tandem with those of other commodities, as well as regional futures markets like the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
“The movement of the futures markets will take into account among others, the uncertain outlook following trade tensions between China and the US, worries of rising inventories in the futures market and currencies movement,” he added.
For the week just-ended, the market traded mostly mixed in tracking the mixed signals from regional rubber futures markets, as well as crude oil price movements.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 rose 19 sen to 534 sen a kg from 515 sen kg last week, and latex-in-bulk eased 2.5 sen to 450.5 sen a kg from 453 sen a kg.
The 5 pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 increased 15.5 sen to 531.5 sen a kg from 516 sen a kg, and latex-in-bulk was 7.5 sen lower at 447.5 sen a kg from 455.0 sen a kg.
- Bernama
