Natural Rubber Markets Monitor: Prices tumble

London – Natural rubber (NR) prices fell further over the past week, as Covid-19 spread continued to impact demand against a background of falling crude oil prices. 

Prices declined across all the markets observed by ERJ over the week to 27 March, with Tocom RSS 3 for September delivery reportedly hitting an 11-year low of Yen141.5/kg on 25 March.

In Shanghai, the most-active rubber futures contract closed 3.5% lower than the previous week at Yuan9,700/tonne. 

With the negative trends firmly in place and a downbeat forecast for 2020 from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries, prices seem set to end April further down on current levels.

In its March monthly update, the association said it expected the world consumption of natural rubber to fall 1.5% to 13.53 million tonnes this year, after a sharp decline in demand in the first quarter.

The ANRPC has also revised down the global production estimates to 2.2% growth to 14.1 million for the whole year. 

Shanghai SHFE ru2009: Yuan9,700/tonne (27 March) Yuan 10,055/tonne (20 March) – down 3.5%
Tokyo Tocom RSS3 back month: Yen149.6/kt compared to Yen154.00/kg – down 2.9% 
Tokyo Tocom TSR20 back month: Yen131.9/kg compared to Yen138.5/kg – down 4.8%
Singapore SGX TSR20: $1.10/kg compared to $1.17/kg – down 6.0%
Kuala Lumpur SMR20: $ 113.05/kg compared to $124.56/kg – down 9.2%
Kuala Lumpur Latex:$ 97.46/kg compared to $101.45/kg – down 3.9%

*Japan’s Tocom was closed to mark the spring solstice on 20 March and figures reflect prices at the end of business on 19 March.