Rubber Advances for Second Day as Low Prices Temper Supplies

By Aya Takada

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Natural rubber futures advanced for a second day, recovering from the five-week low reached yesterday, on speculation low prices will reduce supply further.

Prices in Tokyo gained as much as 4.2 percent after yesterday slumping to the lowest since Dec. 26. Thailand, the world’s biggest producer, last week approved an 8-billion-baht ($230 million) plan to support prices and aimed to draw 200,000 metric tons from the market this year.

“The market has little room to decline given supply restriction by producers,” Shuji Sugata, a research manager at Mitsubishi Corp. Futures & Securities Ltd., said today by phone.

Rubber for July delivery, the most-active contract, rose 2 percent to close at 138.1 yen a kilogram ($1,552 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange.

Gains were limited after data confirmed a worsening slump in the U.S. auto market, deepening concern demand for rubber used for tires may decline further, Sugata said.

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said U.S. sales plummeted at least 40 percent in January, while those of Toyota Motor Corp. dived by almost a third, dragging the world’s biggest auto market to the worst month since 1981.

The plunge in sales is equivalent to an annual rate of 9.6 million cars, down from an average of more than 16 million vehicles the past decade, research firm Autodata Corp. said.

May-delivery rubber on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-active contract, gained 2.8 percent to 13,405 yuan ($1,962) a ton.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aya Takada in Tokyo atakada2@bloomberg.net