Malaysia's natural rubber production down 10.3% in October 2022

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s natural rubber (NR) production decreased by 10.3 per cent to 31,795 tonnes in October 2022 from 35,460 tonnes in September 2022, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

NR output also declined year-on-year, down 26.3 per cent from 43,127 tonnes in October 2021.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said smallholders contributed 87.8 per cent of the production while the estates sector accounted for 12.2 per cent.

Total NR stocks decreased by 0.3 per cent to 198,122 tonnes in October 2022 from 198,706 tonnes in the immediate preceding month.

Of this, factories that process rubber made up 90.8 per cent, followed by those that consume rubber (9.1 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent), he said.

He said exports of Malaysia's NR amounted to 41,548 tonnes in October 2022, which decreased 23.8 per cent from 54,542 tonnes in September 2022.

China remained the main destination for NR exports, accounting for 56.2 per cent of total exports in October 2022, followed by Germany (8.2 per cent), Brazil (3.3 per cent), Finland (3.2 per cent) and Iran (3.0 per cent).

"The export performance was contributed by natural rubber-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, rubber thread and condoms.

"Gloves were the main exports among rubber-based products with a value of RM1.1 billion in October 2022, a decrease of 13.2 per cent from RM1.3 billion in September 2022,” he said.

The average monthly price showed that latex concentrate recorded a decrease of 2.2 per cent to 466.42 sen per kilogramme (kg) in October 2022 from 476.76 sen per kg in the preceding month, while scrap increased by 1.2 per cent to 471.29 sen per kg from 465.86 sen per kg previously.

Prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber decreased between 0.6 and 2.1 per cent. - Bernama