Rubber TSR20 · Origin deep dive

No loadport; the SGX SICOM TSR20 contract is the technically-specified rubber pricing reference for physical FOB origins.

TSR20 spec defines dirt, ash, nitrogen and plasticity limits that STR20, SIR20 and SVR10/20 physicals price against.

Cash-settled and physically referenced pricing used in long-term tyre-maker contracts rather than vessel logistics.

Tyre majors Michelin, Bridgestone and Goodyear plus trade houses hedge TSR exposure here alongside Shanghai and Osaka contracts.

Prices firm during the February-April wintering low-production season and ease as Southeast Asian tapping resumes.

China tyre demand and Shanghai speculation, crude-linked synthetic rubber substitution, and EUDR-driven segregation costs feed the basis.

Laem Chabang and Songkhla load Thai rubber, with Map Ta Phut area terminals serving latex and compound flows.

STR20 block rubber plus RSS3 sheet and concentrated latex; RSS3 carries a quality premium over TSR grades.

Containerised block rubber from southern processing plants, trucked to ports; smallholder cup-lump supply feeds processors.

Chinese tyre makers dominate, alongside Japanese majors like Bridgestone and domestic glove-sector latex demand.

Wintering February-April cuts output sharply; peak tapping runs May-January with monsoon rain interruptions in the south.

Leaf-fall disease outbreaks, southern flooding, Chinese demand cycles, government price-support schemes and EUDR smallholder traceability.

Belawan in North Sumatra, Palembang and Pontianak load SIR20 from crumb-rubber factories.

SIR20 technically-specified rubber from smallholder cup lump, with raw-material shortages pushing factories below capacity.

Containerised bales from processing plants; declining smallholder tapping has structurally shrunk exportable volumes.

US and Chinese tyre manufacturers are the anchor buyers, with Goodyear and Bridgestone plants historically Indonesia-linked.

Wintering in the first quarter plus rainy-season tapping losses shape supply, though structural decline now dominates seasonal signal.

Fungal leaf-fall disease, farmers abandoning rubber for oil palm, aging trees, and EUDR mapping burdens on fragmented smallholders.

Ho Chi Minh City's Cat Lai and Cai Mep terminals load SVR grades from southeastern plantation zones.

SVR3L and SVR10/20 from state-linked plantations, with 3L's light colour a niche premium and 10/20 pricing near SICOM.

Containerised export plus significant overland border flows of raw material into China's Yunnan processing sector.

China takes the overwhelming majority, with mixture-rubber flows engineered around Chinese import duty structures.

Tapping pauses for wintering February-April and peaks in the fourth quarter; Cambodian raw material supplements Vietnamese output.

Chinese demand concentration, plantation-land conversion economics, typhoon damage and EUDR compliance for mixed Cambodian-origin material.

Abidjan and San Pedro load African TSR from a fast-built processing sector alongside the cocoa trade.

Ivorian TSR10/20 from young high-yielding smallholder plantings, quality now accepted by major tyre makers at competitive discounts.

Containerised block rubber; processing capacity raced ahead of cup-lump supply, keeping factory utilisation and margins tight.

Michelin-linked SIPH, Ivorian processors and European and US tyre makers seeking non-Asian, shorter-haul supply.

Equatorial climate gives flatter year-round tapping than Asia, with a modest dry-season dip early in the year.

Overcapacity compressing processor margins, farmgate competition for cup lump, EUDR traceability build-out and port congestion with cocoa peaks.