"The way the market is going, I don't think I'm going to sell anythingimmediately," Roberts said on Wednesday. Inro was dissolved in October afterleading rubber producers Thailand and Malaysia decided to quit the world'slast producer-consumer commodity pact with economic classes. The Asianstates have accused Inro of not doing enough to support prices.

The Kuala Lumpur-based organisation decided at a meeting of its governingcouncil in December that its buffer stock manager clear its 1,40,000 tonneof rubber, now frozen in 12 warehouses in Europe, China and the UnitedStates. To avoid a glut in the world rubber market, Inro's council decidedthat 34,000 tonne of the stock be sold every quarter from January, ending onJune, 2001.

All that would have been all right for Roberts if not for a condition: noselling below the cost price of the stock, which now stands at around 69 UScents a kg. Malaysia's main tyre-grade rubber, SMR 20, is trading at 70 UScents a kg. Roberts said at this price consumers would rather buy freshrubber directly from the market instead of buying from Inro. He said therubber in Inro's possession was "very good" and consumers were aware ofthis.

"But then we don't have the kind of quality guarantees that processors givefor newly purchased material," he said. "We'd give those guarantees if notfor the administrative pains it will cause." Roberts said he would probablymiss the 34,000-tonne target for the first quarter. "The market needs to goto about 75 cents for us to be able to sell," he said, adding that he washoping for a better second quarter. He said the perception that consumerswere always out to depress prices was not right. "I can say that at 80cents, the tyre maker will still be happy to pay as he can still make moneyand it won't kill him."

Roberts said of its entire stock inventory, Inro was especially optimisticof the tyre-grade material it had in China. "China has very high tariffs onrubber imported for the domestic market and we have good RSS III stockedthere in two warehouses owned by Sinochem," he said.

He says if prices pick up, the same sellers who sold to Inro may return tobuy. "I suspect Mardec might be interested in buying back some of the rubberit sold us," he said, referring to Malaysia's state-owned rubber tradingagency. Roberts said Inro also planned to exhibit its warehouses topotential buyers if the market turned around. "If it stays in the doldrums,then the council will have to decide on whether to sell at a loss."

"I suspect that if things don't improve by the third quarter of this year,they're going to get nervous." Inro's council is scheduled to meet again inKuala Lumpur in September to review the buffer stock sales. In the meantime,Roberts said he was trying all he could.

Roberts said as Inro winds down, only skeletal staff would be retained forpurposes of buffer stock clearance and administration. "I would be CEO ofthe entire operations...CEO in charge of working myself out a job."

-- (Reuters)