Rubber Prices to Rise with Rising Chinese Vehicle Sales in 2010

A report on Bloomberg.com suggests that rubber prices will climb by up to 19 per cent by the end of 2010, as demand for vehicles in China witnesses continued growth.

The report quotes Roka Komiya at Japan’s leading rubber trader, Marubeni Corporation, who suggests that rubber will change hands at between $1.80 and $2.30/kg in the first half of 2010, and rise to the range $2 to $2.50 in the second half of the year. Rubber currently trades at $2.10/kg, though the report suggests that late-2009 will see a drop-off to as low as $1.50.

The report continues to predict that China’s auto demand will continue to develop, with a quotation from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers suggesting that the 71 per cent rise in July vehicle sales this year was the biggest gain since January 2009. Kazutaka Sonomoto, manager at Marubeni’s rubber section told Bloomberg that, “Chinese demand will continue to increase as we can’t see any negative factors,” concluding that car ownership in China will accelerate.