Dealers offered Thai tyre grade rubber from China's bonded warehouse at a discount due to high stock levels, while more sellers resurfaced in the physical market due to a rebound in Tokyo futures, dealers said on Wednesday.
Thai STR20 was traded at $3.75 a kg in the bonded warehouse in Qingdao, 10 cents lower than the traded price in Thailand, with China buyers looking to the warehoused materials and keeping largely away from the physical market in recent weeks.
China's absence could be offset by demand from tyre makers, with prices expected to stay firm as the dry wintering season approaches in Thailand and Malaysia. Tyre grade changed hands at $3.76 to $4.01 a kg late on Tuesday in a series of deals.
"There are plenty of sellers and a few cargoes of SIR20 were traded among trading houses," said a dealer in Indonesia's main growing island of Sumatra, who sells the Indonesian grade.
"Bridgestone bought SIR20 at 173 cents (a pound) for April shipment," said the dealer, referring to Bridgestone Corp, the world's largest tyre maker.
SIR20 was also traded at 171 cents to 172 cents a pound ($3.76 to $3.79 a kg) for March delivery, said dealers
Thai STR20 changed hands in Thailand at $3.85 a kg for March shipment, higher than the $3.75 traded in China's Qingdao bonded warehouse, where stocks were estimated at between 230,000 and 250,000 tonnes - hardly changed from last week.
Inventory in the Qingdao bonded area is not disclosed to the public, but makes up the bulk of China's rubber stocks. China imported 2,101,260 tonnes of natural rubber in 2011, up 12.89 percent.
Another Thai rubber, RSS3, was sold to unspecified buyers at $4.01 a kg in overnight deals, but offers stood as high as $4.15 a kg on Wednesday after Tokyo futures jumped more than 2 percent on rising oil prices.
Prices of RSS3, considered the benchmark grade in Southeast Asia, have risen more than 20 percent in the past month after main producer Thailand approved a 15 billion baht ($486 million) plan to buy rubber from farmers at 120 baht per kg to support domestic prices.
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