Rubber glut will cut tyre makers costs

TOKYO: Rubber plantations from Indonesia to Ivory Coast will tap a global crop this year that will create the biggest glut since at least 2004, cutting costs for Bridgestone Corp, Michelin & Cie. and other tyre makers.

The market would switch to a 413,000-tonne surplus, from an 87,000-tonne shortage in 2011 that helped drive rubber to a record in February, Goldman Sachs Group Inc estimated. Prices fell since then on prospects for more supply and slower growth in China, the largest consumer. Futures would drop as much as 12% to 240 yen (US$3.12) a kg in Tokyo this year, the lowest since November 2009, the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 14 analysts and traders showed.