This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Rubber News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Rubber advanced after data showed Japan’s vehicle sales increased last month and confidence among the nation’s largest manufacturers improved, boosting optimism demand may grow for the commodity used in tires.
Futures in Tokyo rose as much as 4.2 percent to 205 yen a kilogram ($2,284 a metric ton). The Tankan index of sentiment among makers of cars, electronics and other goods climbed to minus 33 from minus 48 in June, the Bank of Japan said today. Japan’s vehicle sales rose for the second month in September.
“The good data gave support to industrial commodities including rubber,” Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Tokyo-based commodity broker Fujitomi Co., said today by phone.
March-delivery rubber gained 2.9 percent to settle at 202.4 yen a kilogram on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, extending a 21 percent increase the past three months, the largest quarterly gain since the period ended March 31, 2006.
Sales of cars, trucks and buses, excluding minicars, rose 3.5 percent to 321,737 in September from a year earlier, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a statement today. Auto sales in Japan reversed a yearlong slide in August, rising 2.3 percent as government subsidies and tax cuts helped lift demand for hybrid cars.
Futures also increased as manufacturing in China, the world’s largest rubber consumer, expanded for a seventh month in September on stimulus spending and record growth in new loans.
The official Purchasing Managers’ Index increased to a seasonally adjusted 54.3 from 54 in August, the Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in Beijing.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed for a holiday as the nation celebrates its 60th anniversary today. The January- delivery contract surged as much as 7 percent to the highest price since Sept. 17 yesterday.
Prices climbed amid speculation China may buy surplus rubber from the local market as demand may weaken after the U.S. imposed tariffs on tire imports from the country, Takaki Shigemoto, a commodity analyst at research and investment company TOS, said yesterday.
Source: Bloomberg