Asian rubber markets settled mixed last week, as Chinese buyers started to respond positively to a rubber price intervention scheme by the Thai government. So far, the Thai government has tried to take concerted action by consolidating its national rubber agencies, namely Office of Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (ORRAF), Rubber Estate Organization (REO) and Rubber Research Institute of Thailand (RRIT) to conduct a long term scheme to pull up rubber prices.

IRCo's DCP rose to 389.15 US cents/kg on Friday, a bit higher compared with its DCP at 385.22 US cents/kg on Monday. Thailand RSS-3 also moved slightly higher to 404.04 US cents/kg on Friday, but Thai STR-20 slightly decreased to 381.91 US cent/kg compared with its initial price which stayed at 383.78 US cents/kg on Monday. A similar downtrend was also experienced by SMR 20 which ended the week lower at 378.00 US cents/kg on Friday, a slightly loss, compared with its initial price on Monday. On the contrary, Indonesia SIR 20 moved a bit higher and settled at 386.00 US cents/kg on Friday.

The benchmark rubber contract for July delivery on Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) finished on Friday at 314.70 yen/kg, or gained 4.40 yen/kg higher than on Monday. AFET RSS-3 for September delivery also settled higher at 133.50 THB/kg compared with its Monday settlement price which was 131.05 THB/kg. In addition, Shanghai Commodity Exchange for May delivery closed at 27,535.00 Yuan/ton or rose by as much as 190.00 Yuan/ton compared with its settlement price on Monday.

Supply of natural rubber will remain tight in the coming months as major producing countries move into a low production period due to erratic weather in Thailand, and heavy rains are still disrupting production of raw rubber in Indonesia and Malaysia.