Tokyo rubber futures fall

Tokyo  (april 26, 2011) : key tokyo rubber futures fell 4 percent on monday on weakness in shanghai rubber futures and concern over softening demand from the japanese auto sector. the benchmark tocom rubber futures for october delivery, which debuted on monday, fell as low as 395.4 yen per kg, down 4.3 percent from its opening price, before settling at 395.9 yen, down 17.1 yen from the open.
the previous benchmark for september delivery settled down 13.8 yen at 405.2 yen per kg. the most active rubbercontract on the shanghai commodity exchange for september delivery fell 1,510 yuan ($232.057) per tonne to close at 33,270 yuan per tonne on monday.
"tocom futures slid as chinese rubber futures and stocks fell on concerns about the impact on economic growth from monetary tightening," said kazuhiko saito, chief commodities analyst at fujitomi co. he said a fall in the september delivery contract below 400 yen could pave the way for a technically weak market, as sentiment was also weighed by cuts in japanese automakers' car production following the march 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that severely disrupted the supply chain.
honda motor co said on monday that its production in japan would return to normal levels within this year, adding that its domestic output until the end of june would be at 50 percent of its original plans. that followed toyota motor corp, the world's biggest automaker, saying on friday that it could take until the end of 2011 before output has fully recovered to levels before the earthquake. until then, toyota's domestic factories will continue to work at volumes equivalent to half of original plans and at an average 40 percent outside japan.
toyota on monday said its vehicle production in japan fell 62.7 percent from a year earlier while its global output fell 29.9 percent year-on-year. "toyota's production plans hurt sentiment on concern that demand from the automobile sector will remain weak until the end of the year," saito said. "an expected end to japan's cap on highway tolls later this year also led to speculation that demand for tyres will drop."
"supply will also increase as producer countries are entering tapping season. buying factors are hard to find under these circumstances," saito said. farmers in thailand and malaysia, the biggest and third-biggest producers, have resumed tapping, but supplies were unlikely to rise sharply as farmers need a couple of weeks to collect latex and manufacture them into standard export-grade rubber sheets.

(Source: http://www.brecorder.com/news/agriculture-and-allied/world/1182284:tokyo-rubber-futures-fall.html?hl=rubber)