BANGKOK, April 22 (Reuters) - Thailand has sold 104,000 tonnes of natural rubber from state inventories in a local tender, the country's rubber agency said on Thursday.
Thailand, the world's biggest producer and exporter of natural rubber, sold the "old inventories" including ribbed smoked sheets and Standard Thai Rubber 20 (STR20) and other grades, said Nakorn Tangavirapat, governor of the Rubber Authority of Thailand.
Selling the batch, which was nine years old and no longer fit for normal use, was to save maintenance costs and would not weigh on rubber prices in the market, Nakorn said.
"This is a no-tapping period before new supply enters the market and there is still little supply now," he said.
"Sales of the old rubber inventories, which require different use from new rubber, will not affect the normal rubber market."
A Thai company has been selected as the winner, Nakorn said, adding that the company is required to buy the same amount of rubber from Thai farmers within a year.
Source Nasdaq