“Usually, Chinese buyers would start buying the natural rubber to accumulate their stocks before the Chinese New Year holidays.
“However, it turned out that they lacked buying interest at the local market as stocks are still available to them,” he told Bernama, adding that China is the world’s largest consumer of the commodity.
For the week just-ended, the market was traded mostly lower.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 declined 14 sen to 492.50 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk eased 11 sen to 375.50 sen a kg.
The unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 slipped 18 sen to 491.50 sen a kg and latex-in-bulk dropped 13 sen to 373.50 sen a kg.