Rubber Rallies to One-Week High as Yen Decline Raises Appeal

By Rattaphol Onsanit

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Natural rubber futures climbed to a one-week high in Tokyo, as a weaker Japanese currency versus the dollar boosted the appeal of yen-denominated contracts.

Prices rose as much as 3.8 percent, gaining for a second day, as the yen declined to a three-month low before reports this week that may show Japan’s recession is deepening. Rubber, used in vehicle tires, trades globally in dollars and the futures often move in the opposite direction to the Japanese currency.

“Rubber is getting support from the falling yen.” Rewat Yenchai, an analyst at Bangkok-based AGROW Enterprise Ltd. said today by phone. “That helps counter weak fundamentals, especially when you look at the car industry,” he said.

Rubber for August delivery gained 3.2 percent to 141.4 yen a kilogram ($1,445 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 1:10 p.m. local time. The contract earlier reached 142.2 yen, the highest since Feb. 18.

Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest automaker, will cut output by more than 70 percent this month, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, without citing sources. The company’s spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa said later that the carmaker will raise domestic production in March compared with February after lowering vehicle inventory levels to match demand.

The yen declined to 97.79 against the dollar as of 12:09 p.m. in Tokyo from 97.39 yen late in New York yesterday. Japan’s unemployment rate probably rose to 4.6 percent last month, the highest since February 2005, a survey of economists showed. The data will be released tomorrow.

May-delivery rubber on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-active contract, added 4 percent to 13,380 yuan ($1,957) a ton at the 11:30 a.m. local time break.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rattaphol Onsanit in Bangkok at ronsanit@bloomberg.net