Thailand is expected to deliver 1,000 tonnes of RSS3 rubber early in July after a 2-week delay caused by heavy rains, exporters and traders said on Monday. Some exporters had struggled to find supply in southern Thailand, where monsoon rains have lashed an area that produces 90 percent of the country's 3-million-tonne rubber output.
"Around one thousand tonnes of Thai RSS3 shipment have been postponed from mid-June to July," a dealer in Singapore told Reuters. Persistent rains since mid-June have disrupted tapping and pushed the price of USS3, the raw material for export-grade rubber sheet (RSS3), to a record 104 baht ($3.10) per kg, up from around 60 baht per kg last year.
Flooding had also delayed the transport of rubber from remote plantations, traders said. "Everything should get back to normal in late July when the rainy season should end in the south," one trader said, adding that he expected prices for USS3 to fall.