Bridgestone Corp , the world's largest tyre maker, bought an unspecified quantity of Thai grade for nearby shipment, while steady purchases by main consumer China helped push up physical prices in Southeast Asia, dealers said on Friday.
Although trading was slow in the world's second-largest rubber producer Indonesia due to a Muslim holiday, a few cargoes of SIR20 changed hands at a discount to Thai RSS3 grade. Malaysian SMR20 was also sold in overnight deals to traders in Singapore, who normally ship rubber to China.
"I guess stocks in China are still low, so they need to buy more rubber," said a dealer in Singapore. "There was firm bid from China at $4.75 including freight for SMR20 yesterday. Dealers here wanted to sell it at $4.78 free on board, and it was eventually traded at that level," he added.
China, which accounts for 35 percent of global demand, has been rebuilding its inventory since July after turning to its domestic stocks earlier this year because of high physical prices in Southeast Asia. Rubber inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 6.9 percent to 26,268 tonnes last week. China imported around 1 million tonnes of natural rubber in January to July this year, up 2.11 percent.
Thai RSS3 grade was sold to Bridgestone at $4.76 a kg for October delivery late on Thursday, but there were no details on quantity. The RSS3, often considered the benchmark for physical prices, has risen more than 2 percent since last Friday because of recent gains in Tokyo rubber futures and purchases by tyre makers and China. RSS3 hit a record $6.40 a kg in February.
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