MALAYSIAN RUBBER MARKET TO TRADE STEADILY NEXT WEEK

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian rubber market is likely to trade steadily next week, influenced by the release of the country’s natural rubber (NR) production data by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), a dealer said. According to the DOSM's Monthly Rubber Statistics Malaysia, June 2019 report released on Friday,  Malaysia's NR output in June 2019 declined 10.7 per cent to 36,957 tonnes from 41,364 tonnes in June 2018.  Month-on-month, the comparison showed the production of NR dropped 16.9 per cent from 44,479 tonnes in May 2019. Stocks of NR recorded in June 2019 was 165,596 tonnes, down 6.4 per cent, from 176,972 tonnes in May 2019. On the regional front, the dealer said Thailand’s Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sri-on hinted that Thai rubber production would drop by at least 30 per cent this year due to labour shortage and drought, which had caused rubber trees to die before yielding latex, especially the country’s northeastern region. “The local rubber market will also be closely tracking the movement of oil prices, the benchmark Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) rubber futures, and global market sentiment amid the escalating tensions among major economies, during the shortened trading week,” she told Bernama.  On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the local market was higher with the Malaysian Rubber Board's noon price for tyre-grade SMR 20 recovered 9.0 sen to 547.00 sen a kg but latex-in-bulk fell 5.0 sen to 440.50 sen a kg. The 5 pm unofficial closing price for SMR 20 added 3.5 sen to 545.00 sen a kg, while latex-in-bulk was 2.0 sen easier at 440.00 sen a kg.  The Kuala Lumpur rubber market will be closed on Monday in lieu of the Eid al-Adha celebration which falls on Sunday. The market will commence operations on Tuesday. -- BERNAMA