Talk on Natural Rubber Research

First row from left: FAM lecturer Har Wai Mun, Dr Kevin Low, Prof Dato' Dr Tai, Dr Aye Aye Khin, Jacob, Dr Wong Hong Chau, FAM lecturer Angelina Anne Fernandez, and Lee Sim Kuen

The Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) and the Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) organised a talk titled “Factors Determining Natural Rubber Prices” at Sungai Long Campus on 21 July 2017.

The two-hour talk was presented by senior economist Jom Jacob from the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC), an inter-governmental organisation of natural rubber producing countries.

Present for the talk were R&D and Postgraduate Programmes Deputy Dean Assoc Prof Dr Kevin Low Lock Teng, Prof Dato’ Dr Tai Shzee Yew and Dr Aye Aye Khin from Department of Economics, lecturers from various departments, staff and students.  

Jacob delivering his speech

Jacob began his talk by mainly emphasising the importance of acknowledging the price of natural rubber.  “The natural rubber pricing is very important for Malaysia,” he continued, “A sizeable number of people depend on the movement of rubber price. Even though people are not directly linked to the rubber price, many industries and business companies always complain their business is not doing well because of poor performance of the rubber price.”

With the main objective to identify the major factors that often influence a transformation in the natural rubber industry worldwide, Jacob shared his insights on several factors such as supply and demand, crude oil trends, currency movements and flow of speculative funds. He particularly emphasised on the flow of speculative funds and explained the link between natural rubber price and crude oil price.  

“Synthetic rubber was generally considered as the substitute for natural rubber. It was produced from petroleum. When crude oil prices come down, synthetic rubber can be produced in lower cost, and people will use it more than natural rubber,” he said.

He also showed the audience some facts and figures regarding the seasonal changes in production and global supply. He mentioned, “For starters, major rubber producing countries like China, normally have their production hit at their lowest point during December and January because this is the period when the temperature would be extremely low, therefore ending up with low production.”

Moreover, he also talked about the structure, size of the holdings and global rubber market, characteristics of production and consumption factors, the impact of currencies in the natural market and others to the audience. He concluded his talk by stating that the natural rubber prices depend on the changes of oil sector and currencies.

Jacob has been in the rubber industry for more than three decades as a global market analyst and speaker in conferences and seminars held across the globe. He possesses extensive experience in analysing rubber market, forecasting industry trends, formulating development plans and undertaking studies. He has his credit about 100 published papers and analytical articles on the rubber industry.