Natural rubber futures prices take a tumble

Tokyo – World rubber futures “tumbled with speculative selling pressure” across all major exchanges in the trading week ended 21 Oct, Japan’s JPX trading exchange has reported.

“Market sentiment deepened to bearish by weak technical indicators, supply concerns, and slowing rubber demand,” Tokyo-based JPX noted in its latest weekly report.

Indeed, prices hit a multi-year low, stated the exchange, noting increasing concerns among rubber producers about the prospects of recovery to previous price levels.

Rubber futures on the Osaka OSE exchange fell 3.6%, while Singapore’s SICOM futures slipped by 5.4% “amid liquidating long positions,” continued the report.

On the key Chinese SHFE and INE exchanges, rubber futures lost 3.5% and 2.6%, respectively, under heavy speculative selling pressure, continued JPX

SHFE rubber warehouse stocks, it noted, increased by 3,560 tonnes, though INE's stocks dropped by 4,234 as Chinese tire consumers tended to procure TSR20 more than sheet rubber last week.

On a bright note, JPX said China's vehicle sales increased by 229,671 units in September, in contrast to a decline seen in August.

Meanwhile, Japan reported strong industrial production figures for August, at +3.4% as well as higher inflation pressure in September, with CPI of 3.0%.

US stocks closed higher on news that the Fed might slow the pace of interest rate rises, added JPX.