Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian rubber market ended lower today, dragged down by weaker advice from regional rubber markets and declining oil prices, said a dealer. She noted that market sentiment was also pressured by the stronger ringgit against the US dollar amid fresh tariff threats from the US, which increased global trade tensions and fears of a US recession.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, further losses were capped by optimism for more Chinese economic stimulus and a cooler than expected US consumer inflation in February 2025 at 2.8 percent year-on-year. The inflation number was the smallest gain since October, which provided some relief as consumers and businesses worry about the looming impact tariffs might have on inflation.

Market players were also seen reacting to the reduced natural rubber (NR) production as reported by the Statistics Department (DoSM). DoSM reported that the Malaysian NR production decreased by 20.8 percent in January 2025 (30,342 tonnes) compared with December 2024 (38,299 tonnes).

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Rubber Board reported that Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) 20 was down by 10.5 sen to 873.00 sen per kilogramme (kg) as of 3 pm, while latex in bulk fell 2.5 sen to 696.50 sen per kg.