Natural Rubber: TSR 10, TSR 20 & RSS 3

Technically specified rubber TSR 10 and TSR 20 (STR, SIR, SMR, SVR) and ribbed smoked sheet RSS 3 in pallets

Natural rubber in bale form is sold two ways. Technically specified rubber (TSR) is block rubber graded in a laboratory, and the grade number is the dirt ceiling: under ISO 2000 and the national schemes that apply it (Thailand's STR, Indonesia's SIR, Malaysia's SMR and Viet Nam's SVR), TSR 20 carries dirt retained on a 44-micron sieve of at most 0.16% by weight (the Vietnamese TCVN 3769:2016 scheme and most producer sheets), ash at most 0.80%, nitrogen at most 0.60%, volatile matter at most 0.80%, Wallace initial plasticity (Po) of at least 30 and a plasticity retention index (PRI) of at least 40; TSR 10 is the cleaner field-grade block with a lower dirt and ash ceiling. Constant-viscosity grades (TSR CV50, CV60) add a Mooney viscosity band for mixing rooms that want to skip mastication. Ribbed smoked sheet (RSS 1 to RSS 5) is the older, visually graded product, sheet coagulated from field latex and smoke-dried, and RSS 3 is the grade the Japanese and Singapore futures reference; it is bought against the Green Book grade descriptions rather than a laboratory sheet, and it fits the same buyers, so it is carried here as a grade. A buyer states the grade, the scheme it accepts, any Mooney band for CV grades and the lot size; the seller supplies a certificate of analysis per lot, with independent sampling by SGS, Intertek or a similar surveyor where the contract asks for it. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations under HS 4001.22 (TSR) put Thailand at 1.76 million MT at an average USD 1,820/MT, Indonesia at 1.58 million MT at USD 1,782, Côte d'Ivoire at 1.56 million MT at USD 1,493, Malaysia at 0.56 million MT at USD 1,671 and Cambodia at 0.34 million MT, with Ghana (75,500 MT), Guatemala (52,600 MT) and Nigeria (46,400 MT) behind them; under HS 4001.21 (smoked sheet) Thailand declared 351,000 MT at USD 2,302/MT and Indonesia 38,900 MT at USD 2,242. Viet Nam and Liberia are established exporters but did not publish 2024 figures in the same dataset.

The tyre industry is the largest user of natural rubber, so the core buyer is a tyre plant or a retreader buying TSR 20 for truck and bus compounds and TSR 10 or RSS 3 where green strength and cleanliness matter; behind them sit footwear and sole makers, conveyor-belt and hose plants, anti-vibration and moulded-goods makers, and adhesive and sealant compounders. The unit is the bale: 33.33 kg or 35 kg blocks wrapped in thin meltable or strippable polyethylene, 36 bales to a shrink-wrapped pallet of 1.20 or 1.26 MT, 16 pallets to a 20-ft container of 19.2 or 20.16 MT, with wooden pallets heat-treated to ISPM 15. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers TSR and RSS from processors, exporters and their trading houses in the producing countries, per container or in monthly programmes, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, against a certificate of analysis, a certificate of origin and, where the destination requires it, a phytosanitary certificate. Natural rubber is a relevant commodity under the EU Deforestation Regulation: for EU-bound cargo the operator needs the geolocation of the plots of land where the rubber was produced and a due-diligence statement showing it is deforestation-free and legally produced, so EU buyers should ask for that data before the contract is signed, not after loading. Send the grade and scheme, the monthly tonnage, the destination port and whether EU due-diligence data is needed, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.