Benchmark Tokyo rubber futures ended lower on Tuesday, pulling back from a 1½-month high hit earlier in the session, on weak fundamentals and a decline in oil prices as investors waited to see whether the U.S. would re-impose sanctions on Iran.
China's natural and synthetic rubber imports totalled 428,000 tonnes in April, down 26.2% from a year earlier, China's preliminary trade data showed on Tuesday.
"Seasonally speaking, this is not the time of peak demand, and therefore the supply/demand is not tight," said a Japanese trading source.
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for October delivery finished 1.8 yen lower at 191.7 yen (US$1.76) per kg, after touching 195 yen earlier, the highest since March 16.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for September delivery rose 30 yuan to finish at 11,735 yuan (US$1,845) per tonne.
The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for June delivery last traded at 143 US cents per kg, down 1.1 cent.
(US$1 = 108.9000 yen)
(US$1 = 6.3620 Chinese yuan)
