KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s natural rubber (NR) production decreased by 13.7 per cent to 23,460 tonnes in April 2023 from 27,188 tonnes in March 2023, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).
However, NR output increased year-on-year, up 3.4 per cent from 22,695 tonnes in April 2022, it said.
"The smallholders sector contributed 87.7 per cent of the production while the estates sector accounted for 12.3 per cent," the department said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, total NR stocks decreased by 4.5 per cent to 194,527 tonnes in April 2023 from 203,757 tonnes in the preceding month, and out of this, rubber processing factories made up 91.2 per cent, followed by rubber consumers factory (8.7 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent), it said.
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DoSM also stated that exports of Malaysia's NR amounted to 37,728 tonnes in April 2023, which decreased 17.6 per cent from 45,789 tonnes in March 2023.
China remained the main destination for NR exports, accounting for 48.4 per cent of total exports in April 2023, followed by Germany (11.7 per cent), Pakistan (5.6 per cent), Turkiye (3.9 per cent), and Portugal (3.3 per cent).
"The exports performance was contributed by NR-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, rubber thread and condom.
"Gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM0.8 billion in April 2023, a decrease of 32.6 per cent from RM1.2 billion in March 2023,” it said.
The average monthly price showed that latex concentrate recorded a decline of 6.6 per cent to 495.00 sen per kilogramme (kg) in April 2023 from 530.11 sen per kg in the preceding month, while scrap decreased by 0.7 per cent to 465.21 sen per kg from 468.68 sen per kg previously.
Prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber decreased between 0.1 and 6.6 per cent. - Bernama
