KUALA LUMPUR: The outlook for the Malaysian rubber market looks uncertain next week given the ongoing political developments in Thailand.
The market is expected to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude especially in the aftermath of the coup in Thailand, the world’s largest natural rubber producer.
“If the new government decides to offload 200,000 tonnes of rubber from its stockpile, rubber prices will nosedive.
“This will hurt the market even more,” a dealer told Bernama.
Meanwhile, the International Rubber Study Group has projected that global natural rubber supply would outstrip demand by 241,000 tonnes in 2014, down from
a surplus of 384,000 tonnes recorded last year.
For the week-just-ended, rubber prices moved like a ‘yo-yo’ following the uncertainties in the market.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 at noon edged up 1.5 sen to 545 sen a kg while
latex-in-bulk gained 6.5 sen to 462.5 sen a kg.
The 5pm closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 added four sen to 543 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk improved 6.5 sen to 462 sen a kg.– Bernama
