Spot rubber regained strength following a firm close in domestic futures on Wednesday. RSS 4 improved to Rs.133.00 (132.50) per kg, according to traders and the Rubber Board. The grade was quoted firm at Rs.129.00 (128.50) per kg by Dealers. The market failed to make all-round gains as ISNR 20 and Latex remained unchanged and almost inactive during late trading hours.

In futures, the February contracts improved to Rs. 132.99 (131.91), March to Rs. 134.87 (133.75) and April to Rs. 138.22 (136.67) per kg on the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX). The near month February contracts were up by 0.82% with a volume of 327 lots and total trade value of 434.18 lakh.

One of the major factors that affected the world production of NR in 2019 is the substantial fall in imports by China and India during the year. According to the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), the volume imported in 2019 was down 5.59 lakh tonnes in China and 1.02 lakh tonnes in India as compared with the previous year.

Due to lower imports , NR processors scaled down the purchase of raw rubber from farmers. Farmers generally sell the produce to the processors in the form of cup-lump, unsmoked sheet (USS) and field latex, which have short shelf-life. They are compelled to reduce the production once the processing factories reduce the purchase.

Climate change is another factor that had left the traditional rubber growing regions in several countries under stress that restricted the best yield from the rubber trees.

RSS 3 (spot) firmed up to Rs. 107.66 (106.61) per kg at Bangkok. The February futures weakened Rs. 95.49 (97.73) and March to Rs. 107.19 (107.87) while the April futures firmed up to Rs.113.10 (112.44) per kg on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM).

Spot rubber rates (Rs/kg) were:

RSS-4: 133.00 (132.50)

RSS-5: 126.50 (126.00)

ISNR 20: 114.50 (114.50)

and Latex (60% drc): 84.50 (84.50)

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