Tuesday, April 19, 2016

At last, ahead of polls


Growers were facing an unprecedented crisis due to a steady decline in natural rubber prices and also the production. The un-remunerative prices have forced farmers to stop harvesting the crop and even abandon tapping. The growers complain that the Rubber Board, which is looked upon as a source of support, is hardly taking any efforts for their benefit. At last the Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Senior IAS officer A Ajith Kumar, a 1994 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, to the post of chairman of Rubber Board of India, Kottayam. He has been appointed for a period up to 31st May 2018, which is the date of his superannuation. The post has been lying vacant since August 2014.

The benchmark RSS4 grade rubber closed at `.133 a kg at Kottayam, while RSS3 grade closed at `.114.61 a kg at Bangkok and Malaysian SMR20 closed at `.101.40 a kg. On National Multi Commodity Exchange May 2016, the futures closed at `.137.02 a kg, June at `.137.22 and July 2016 closed at `.137.58 a kg. Tokyo Commodity Exchange April 2016 futures series closed at ¥188.5 a kg, May 2016 at ¥185.3, June at ¥187, July at ¥187.8, August at ¥188.4 and the contract for delivery in September 2016 closed at ¥189.9 a kg. On Wednesday, most probably Tocom futures contract for delivery in September 2016 may trade in the positive range of ¥190 & ¥199 a kg.

To read Rubber4U – 1st May 2016 issue: http://rubber4u.com/Public/Abcd.pdf
For 2015-16 Rubber Forecast: http://rubber4u.com/Public/RForecast.pdf