The world production of natural rubber (NR) experienced a fall at 10.1%, amounting to 1.080 million tonnes in January 2019 on a year-to-year basis, says the latest report from the Malaysia-basedAssociation of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC). It says that this may be “a result from the recent tropical storm reported in the southern part of Thailand, which is the major NR producing province in Thailand”.
In contrast, the world demand for NR recorded an increase of 1.3% to 1.151 million tonnes during the same period, according to ANRPC.
ANRPC goes on to say that the “favourable market fundamental sentiments and the price rally in crude oil market have further supported the recovery in NR prices across physical and futures markets in January 2019. Besides that, positive news reported over the trade talks progress between US and China and the determination from OPEC members over their production cut have made the commodities prices stay firmer over this period”.