Spot rubber closed unchanged on Monday. “We expect the market to settle somewhere around these levels and recover after consolidating for a short period of time” an observer said. RSS4 was quoted steady at ₹171 a kg  by traders and the Rubber Board. The trend was partially mixed as latex lost marginally on dull demand. The overall volumes were low.    The global outlook of natural rubber stays positive in 2022, according the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC). The world production is expected to grow by 1.9% at 14.107 million tonnes while the world consumption is expected to have a moderate growth at 1.2% to 14.232 million tonnes during 2022.   Despite the positive sentiments in NR market, the commodity faces several challenges which may hinder its growth. In the supply side, it is heavily affected by adverse climate, labour shortage, Omicron cases around the globe and off-tapping season which may aggravate supply tightness in the coming months.   Other global events such as surge in crude oil prices, geopolitical crisis, global supply chain disruption caused by delayed shipping schedule, global shortage of semiconductor chipsets and healthcare risks such as Covid-19 development may also influence the NR market.   In futures, the most active March contracts were up 0.29 percent from Friday’s settlement price to close at ₹168.90 per kg with a volume of 8 lots on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). . RSS3 (spot) dropped to ₹167.93 (167.98) per kg at Bangkok. SMR20 weakened to ₹129.51 (130.80) and Latex to ₹122.43 (123.44) per kg at Kualalumpur.   The natural rubber contract for the May 2022 delivery was up 0.9 percent from previous day’s settlement price to close at 13.49 Yuan (₹161.67) per kg with a volume of 186,461 lots in daytime trading on Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE).   Spot rubber rates (₹/kg) were: RSS4: 171.00 (171.00), RSS5: 169.00 (169.00), ISNR20: 163.50 (163.50) and Latex (60% drc): 123.00 (124.00)

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