Big Three rubber producers to maintain export curbs
to cut exports. Indonesia, the second biggest, will cut its sales by 100,000 tonnes and Malaysia will cut exports by 50,000 tonnes.
But the policy has had minimal impact on prices, with Thai export-grade rubber sheet (RSS3) at US$3.10 per kg today. As global economic problems have sapped demand, prices have plunged from a record high of US$6.40 per kg in February 2011.
The current RSS3 price of US$3.00 to US$3.10 per kg is an acceptable level that helped boost trade, traders and government officials at the meeting said.
“We are satisfied with this level. It may be well below the record, but it is not very volatile and it is the level that sellers and buyers accept,” a trader in Thailand’s rubber trading centre of Hat Yai said.
Physical rubber prices typically track benchmark Tokyo rubber futures, which have also halved from their record top hit in February last year.
Tokyo rubber futures have been trapped in a narrow range of ¥250 to ¥270 for weeks, as demand from China and India offset falling consumption from the US and Europe.
The benchmark Tokyo rubber futures contract for May delivery rose today to a two-month high of ¥272 per kg.
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