SINGAPORE: Japanese rubber futures inched lower on Wednesday, tracking losses in the Shanghai market and weaker domestic equities as a contraction in domestic factory output and weak factory activity data in top buyer China weighed on sentiment.
The Osaka Exchange rubber contract for May delivery was down 0.3 yen, or 0.1%, at 213.5 yen ($1.54) per kg as of 0207 GMT. The rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for January delivery was down 80 yuan, or 0.6%, at 12,760 yuan ($1,787) per tonne. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei share average opened down 0.50%.
Japan’s factory output fell for a second consecutive month in October, as stalling global demand and lingering supply bottlenecks put a lid on Japanese manufacturers’ production plans.
China’s factory activity contracted at a faster pace in November, an official survey showed on Wednesday, weighed down by softening global demand and Covid-19 restrictions, underscoring the added pressure faced by the world’s second-largest economy. Mainland China’s Health Commission reported 37,828 new coronavirus cases for Nov. 29, compared with 38,645 new cases a day earlier.
Asian shares wobbled on Wednesday as investors remain cautious about China’s path to reopening its economy after it released disappointing manufacturing data.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore Exchange’s SICOM platform for December delivery last traded at 129.9 US cents per kg, up 1.9%.
IVORY COAST RUBBER EXPORTS UP
ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast exported 1,209,371 tonnes of natural rubber from January to October 2022, up about 22% from the same period a year earlier, provisional port data showed on Wednesday.
The world’s top cocoa producer is also Africa’s leading grower of natural rubber.
Exports have risen in recent years as farmers, attracted by the promise of more stable incomes, have increasingly switched to rubber from cocoa and coffee.
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