The agency is buying on an average 2,000 tonnes of natural rubber from its three authorised dealers to shore up the natural rubber prices.

Sources in STC told The Financial Express here on Monday that the total procurement of natural rubber by the agency till early July had crossed the 13,000- tonne mark. The active intervention by the agency in the recent months has helped the rubber prices, which had hit the rock bottom levels early this year, to bounce back.

``We are active in the market. The news to the contrary is incorrect. We, through our designated agencies buy 2,000 tonnes of natural rubber per week,'' a spokesman of STC said.

The Centre has asked STC to procure an additional 20,000 tonnes of naturalrubber from the market in May last in a bid to arrest the free fall in prices. STC was asked to procure the commodity at a price less than Rs 34 per kg for the RSS 4 grade.

Since then STC has been authorising its three designated dealers to procure 2,000 tonnes of rubber from the open market and deliver it to the corporation's warehouses in seven days time. The three agencies designated for procurement by STC are the state-run Rubco, RubberMark and the Rubber Dealers' Federation, an association of traders. STC has been placing weekly orders of 1,000 tonnes with the federation, and 500 tonnes each with Rubco and RubberMark.

The STC spokesman said the agency at present held a cumulative stock of around 6,000 tonnes of natural rubber in its various godown, including 5,500 tonnes of the carryforward stock from last tranche of procurement. Since February, the tyre companies as a whole lifted over 12,500 tonnes of natural rubber from agency.

Tyre companies were asked to purchase natural rubber from STC fromFebruary this year after the commerce ministry banned the import of natural rubber under the Advanced Licence Scheme (ALS). The centre has banned import under ALS and asked the STC to supply the commodity to the industry at import parity prices against the surrender of ALS.

``So far we have sold 12,500 tonnes of natural rubber to tyre companies under the surrender of ALS scheme. Sale of another 350-360 tonnes is in various stages of delivery,'' the STC spokesman said. The total ALS capacity of the industry was pegged at 20,000 tonnes per annum.

He said the agency might find it difficult to meet the tyre industry's demand unless the delivery of the commodity by its dealers was expedited. The fall in international prices to the Rs 24-25 per kg level for RSS-3 variety has also put downward pressure on prices, he added.