Tokyo rubber futures fell to a new three-year low on Thursday on concerns about weak demand for the industrial commodity, while some Chinese users have refused to pay at prices settled earlier, causing defaults of shipments. Chinese buyers have defaulted on more than 10,000 tonnes of rubber from south-east Asia after prices lost more than 30 percent in the past month, dealers said on Wednesday.
The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for March delivery stood at 163.8 yen per kg as of 0015 GMT, down 14.3 yen or 8 percent from Wednesday's close. It earlier fell as low as 162.7 yen, the lowest since August 2005. Overshadowing the TOCOM market, Japan's benchmark Nikkei share average dropped more than 8 percent on Thursday.
Oil is extending losses posted on Wednesday, when it fell 5 percent below $75 a barrel on expectations that a deepening economic slowdown will cut into already weakening demand.
European new vehicle registrations fell 8.2 percent in September from a year earlier despite two extra working days, as the fall-out from the financial crisis hit auto manufacturers hard, the manufacturers' association ACEA said. J.D. Power and Associates, which tallies US auto sales on a daily basis, sees October sales on track to hit the lowest level in 17 years with a sales rate below 12 million unit.