Jan rubber production may rise 14%

Rubber output in the country, the world's fourth-biggest grower, may rise 14 per cent to a record this month after cool weather helped plantation work, the state-run Rubber Board said.

Output may reach 110,000 tonnes in January, from 96,450 tonnes a year ago, G Mohana Chandran, the board's joint director, said by phone on Monday from Kottayam. Stockpiles at the end of the month may gain 31 per cent to 234,000 tonnes, he said.

Higher production in the country may weigh on benchmark rubber prices in Tokyo that have fallen 7.6 per cent this year amid concern that slowing economies may curb car sales and weaken demand for the commodity. Rubber reached a record 313.30 yen a kilogram ($2,941 a ton) on December 27.

"Production in January could be an all-time high as growers were able to extend tapping because of the cold climate,'' Sajen Peter, chairman of the Kottayam-based board, said by phone.

Natural rubber is obtained from latex, a milky white fluid that is gathered by cutting through the bark of the rubber tree and collected in small cups in a process known as tapping.

Imports by Indian tyremakers, including MRF and Apollo Tyres, may almost halve to 5,200 tonnes in January because of increased local production, according to a Rubber Board estimate.

Rubber output fell 6.4 per cent to 619,850 tonnes between April and December, while consumption rose 4.7 per cent to 640,435 tonnes in the same period, Chandran said. Imports in the nine months ended December totalled 67,070 tonnes, 48 per cent more than a year earlier, he said.

Rubber for June delivery, the most-active contract, fell 0.8 per cent to 285.70 yen a kilogram on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange on Monday. Rubber for March delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange fell 0.9 per cent to Rs 9,610 a quintal.