Thai rubber firms need loan to stockpile

Thai rubber firms need loan to stockpile

Dow Jones, Singapore

Thai rubber exporters and producers are willing to stockpile
rubber to shore up global prices but will need a soft loan of 2
billion baht from the government to do so, a senior industry
official said Saturday.

Choositt Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rubber
Association, told Dow Jones Newswires that Thai rubber exporters
agree with the government's plan to reduce exports to boost
prices.

He added that to stockpile 100,000 tons of rubber, the Thai
government needs to extend a 2 billion bath soft loan to private
exporters and producers.

He said he has already made a proposal to the Thai agriculture
ministry and that this will be discussed in Tuesday's cabinet
meeting.

Choositt, who was in Singapore over the weekend, to attend an
Asian rubber industry meeting, said exporters don't have the
financial means to stockpile rubber and thus need government
funding.

He was reacting to a statement by the Indonesian Trade
Minister Rini Soewandi, who said the Thai government hasn't
received much cooperation from commercial producers who object to
the international tripartite rubber agreement.

"Some in the private sector aren't cooperating so the Thai
authorities have to solve this problem," Rini told reporters in a
press briefing held in Jakarta last week.

But Choositt said this statement is "not true."

"We want to cooperate, but we can't do it by ourselves because
of financial restrictions...so we urge the government to help us
in providing soft loans to us," he said.

Ministers from the world's top rubber producers - Malaysia,
Thailand and Indonesia - signed in December a joint ministerial
declaration to cut combined rubber output by 4 percent, and
exports by 10 percent in 2002.