Spot rubber regained strength on Wednesday. The commodity opened steady but recovered Monday’s losses as certain companies bought RSS grades up to ₹180.50 a kg during early trading hours.

Supply concerns continued to cast shadows over the market and there were no quantity sellers in the local trading houses even at higher levels.

RSS-4 improved to ₹180 (179) a kg as per traders. The grade firmed up to ₹179.50 (179) and ₹174.50 (174) per kg, according to the Rubber Board and dealers. The trend was partially mixed as Latex continued to retreat on low demand.

Following a 6.9 per cent fall in 2019, the world demand for natural rubber is expected to increase by 8.3 per cent to 14 million tonnes in 2021, reports the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC). The year 2021 is likely to witness a global shortage of around 200,000 tonnes since the world supply during the year is expected at 13.8 million tonnes. Although the shortage is not substantial relative to the global demand, this can reflect in the physical markets in the last two months of the year.

In futures, the most active November delivery was down 0.79 per cent from Tuesday’s settlement price to close at ₹178.49 per kg with a volume of 34 lots on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX).

RSS-3 (spot) improved ₹139.08 (138.52) per kg at Bangkok. SMR20 inched up to ₹125.96 (125.88) and Latex to ₹98.43 (98.02) per kg at Kuala Lumpur.

The natural rubber contract for the January 2022 delivery was up 0.78 per cent from previous day’s settlement price to close at 14.08 Yuan (₹163.86) per kg with a volume of 202,777 lots in day time trading on Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE).

Spot rubber rates (₹/kg) were: RSS-4:180 (179), RSS-5: 177.50 (177), ISNR20: 167 (167) and Latex (60% drc): 130 (131).

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW