NR prices drifting lower; traders unimpressed by ITRO

WASHINGTON (April 15)—Even as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia cemented their plans to cut natural rubber output and buy up their own NR production, NR traders said they had yet to see that the International Tripartite Rubber Organization would have any effect on the market. "They're buttoning up the ground rules they agreed to play by," said Lou Mucciolo, president of the Rubber Trade Association of North America. "But no offers are being made, and no orders are coming down telling producers to withhold this rubber or that rubber." NR prices, after a sharp spike, are inching down, Mucciolo noted, with Standard Indonesian Rubber 20 trading at 34 cents a pound delivered to New Orleans or Norfolk, Va., after reaching 37¾ cents a month before.