Rubber Price Monitor: Prices improve

London – Natural rubber (NR) prices strengthened during the recent weeks, putting into reverse a downtrend observed in the final weeks of June. 

All Far East markets observed by ERJ posted improvements for the two weeks to 10 July, with the most active NR contract for September 2020 delivery closing 4% higher on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

Latex prices on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange were the only exception, registering a 3% decline over the two-week period. 

A recovery trend for NR prices observed in late May and early June in the Far East markets were broken in the latter part of June, due in part to fears of a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) expects market sentiment to be triggered by a set of other favourable economic developments in the third quarter.

These include the “impressive performance” of China’s manufacturing in June and the U-turn in the country’s car sales, which rose 14.5% in May after a 43% fall in March.

Trends in crude oil market are also expected to stay favourable to NR.  

Shanghai SHFE ru2009: Yuan 10,495/tonne (10 July) compared to Yuan 10060/tonne (26 June) – up 4.3%*

Tokyo Tocom RSS3 back month: Yen155.1/kg compared to Yen155.2/kg– down 0.0%

Tokyo Tocom TSR20 back month: Yen131/kg compared to Yen129/kg – up 1.5%

Singapore SGX TSR20*: $1.25/kg compared to $1.19/kg – up 5%

Kuala Lumpur SMR20: $119.10/kg compared to $115.10/kg – up 3.4%

Kuala Lumpur Latex: $ 111.60/kg compared to $115.11/kg –  down 3%