A Thai administrative court will need several days of hearings before it can rule on a petition by farmers to halt government plans to sell 200,000 tonnes of state rubber stocks, a court spokesman said on Wednesday (May 28).
The government, which bought the stocks from farmers in an intervention scheme running from October 2012 to May 2013 in order to prop up prices, had intended to sell the stocks last month.
But rubber cooperatives filed a petition seeking protection from the move, as they feared the sales would swell supply on the market and further drag down prices, which are struggling near multi-year lows.
“There many groups of people involved in the case, so it will take days for the court in hearing and investigating it before ruling,” said the spokesman, Pairoj Minden. He did not say how many days would be required.
The benchmark sixth-month rubber contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange has fallen around 25 percent this year, hit chiefly by concerns over slower economic growth in China, the world’s biggest consumer of the commodity.
The benchmark TOCOM rubber contract for November delivery was down 1.5 yen to settle at 204.6 yen per kg on Wednesday (May 28).
Physical rubber prices also fell in line with TOCOM prices.
The price of benchmark Thai smoked rubber sheet (RSS3) has lost a fifth this year to stand at $2.0 per kg on Wednesday (May 28), traders said.
– Reuters
