KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s natural rubber (NR) production decreased by 37.3 per cent to 18,008 tonnes in April 2025 as compared to 28,739 tonnes in the previous month, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said that the NR production fell by 15.6 per cent year-on-year, as against 21,325 tonnes in April 2024.
"Production of NR in April 2025 for Malaysia was mainly contributed by the smallholders sector (86.0 per cent) as compared to the estates sector (14.0 per cent),” he said in a statement.
On total stocks, Mohd Uzir said they have decreased by 6.7 per cent to 203,728 tonnes in April 2025 as compared to 218,253 tonnes in March 2025, with the rubber processors factory contributing 87.6 per cent of the stocks followed by rubber consumer factory (12.3 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent).
He said exports of Malaysia’s NR amounted to 35,901 tonnes in April 2025, a decrease of 31.7 per cent as against March 2025 (52,531 tonnes).
"China remained as the main destination for NR exports, which accounted for 33.3 per cent of total exports in April 2025, followed by the United Arab Emirates (14.9 per cent), Germany (14.2 per cent), India (6.5 per cent) and the United States (US) (5.1 per cent),” it said.
He added that the export performance was contributed by NR-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes and rubber threads.
Gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM1.1 billion in April 2025, down 19.2 per cent as compared to March 2025 (RM1.3 billion).
Meanwhile, DOSM reported that the average monthly price of concentrated latex recorded a decrease of 7.0 per cent (April 2025: 647.20 sen per kilogramme (kg); March 2025: 696.05 sen per kg), while scrap dropped by 15.8 per cent (April 2025: 641.27 sen per kg; March 2025: 761.92 sen per kg).
The trend of prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) posted a decline between 6.9 per cent and 13.5 per cent.
According to the Malaysia Rubber Board Digest published in April 2025, the Kuala Lumpur Rubber Market experienced mixed trends of decline and recovery throughout April, influenced by fluctuating signals from regional rubber futures markets in response to uncertainties surrounding the US trade policies.
"Market sentiment remained subdued amid ongoing global economic uncertainties and escalating China-US trade tensions, (with) a stronger ringgit against the US dollar and declining crude oil prices further weighing on sentiment,” it added. - Bernama
