Rubber futures steady

Rubber futures steady

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Singapore nearby TSR20 rubber futures were quietly steady by the finish yesterday, helped by firm Indonesian prices on weather factors, traders said.

But the RSS1 and RSS3 contracts were marked lower in line with the Tokyo's trend, they said.

News that Saturday's earthquake in the Indonesian island of Sumatra hardly moved the market after initial reports showed that it damaged no ports or processing plants.

"The impact is hardly significant as no factories near Jambi are affected," one Singapore trader said. Jambi, located near the quake area, is a main rubber port.

Traders did not hear any fresh Indonesian deals today partly due to the long weekend holiday in the United States. The Jambi rubber is valued at 56.50 U.S. cents a pound and Palembang at 57.

But they said the prices could remain high in the coming days due to soaring raw material prices following heavy rains.

"The raw material supply is very scarce," one Jambi trader said. He said a kg of raw rubber is now priced at 2,600 rupiah.