Rubber futures and physical rubber markets in Asia retreated on Monday after China reported a surprisingly poor batch of economic data, especially an unexpected trade deficit of $22.98 billion in February, and revised Japanese figures showed 2013 growth was slower than expected.
Excessively dry weather in the major natural rubber (NR) producing countries, i.e. Thailand,Indonesia, and Malaysia convinced market players and investors to cover their short positions whereas NR supply in these countries continued declining significantly.
That resulted in continued rises in the rubber futures and physical rubber markets in the region from Tuesday to Friday even though the Japanese yen strengthened against the dollar, crude oil futures and global stock markets moved down.
It is anticipated that firm rubber market fundamentals will help support NR prices to move up further in the coming week.
Source: IRCo
