Myanmar’s Rubber Exporters Hold Shipments As Price Drops

RUBBER exports are shrinking and prices on the domestic market are following suit, exporters and producers said last week.
Prices in the domestic market fell to K900 a pound (0.45 kilograms) in the first week of March from the last week of February, a fall that was in line with the export price, said U Khine Myint, general secretary of the Myanmar Rubber Planters and Producers Association.
“Almost all grades of rubber decreased in early March. Since the last week of February, all export prices fell by K150 a pound – a pound of Ribbed Smoked Sheet 5 (RSS-5) fell to K1600 from K1750, RSS-3 fell from K1850 to K1700 and RSS-1 K1900 to K1750.
However, despite the falling prices, he said the amount of rubber exported in the 2010-11 year would not be less than the previous fiscal year.
“We don’t have enough demand locally, so most rubber planters and producers are concentrating on the international market. In the 2009-10 year we exported 78,000 tonnes of rubber and have already sent about 80,000 tonnes this financial year [ending March 31]. We’re still hoping to reach a total of 95,000 tonnes in exports this year,” he said.
U Soe Myint, the owner of Shwe Myanmar Rubber in Bayintnaung township, said low prices might hurt exporters.
“On March 1, a pound of RSS1 rubber sold for K1950 but within one week it had fallen by K200 [about 10 percent] to K1750. There were similar declines in RSS-1 and RSS-3 prices,” he said.
He added that he had temporarily halted exports until the prices recovered.
“Normally, I export almost all grades of rubber to Malaysia but I’m stopping all shipments until the prices return to normal levels. I can’t make any profits at the current prices,” U Soe Myint said.
(Myanmar Times, Myanmar, April 3, 2011)