KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s natural rubber (NR) production increased by 6.8 per cent to 25,062 tonnes in May 2023 from 23,460 tonnes in April 2023, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).
Similarly, NR output grew by 20.2 per cent year-on-year as against 20,857 tonnes in May 2022, it said.
“Production of NR in May 2023 for Malaysia was mainly contributed by the smallholders sector (86.3 per cent) as compared to the estates sector (13.7 per cent),” the agency said in a statement Monday.
However, it said total NR stocks in the month fell by 11.4 per cent to 172,263 tonnes versus 194,464 tonnes in the month before, with the rubber processing factories contributing 92.4 per cent of the stocks, followed by the rubber consuming factories (7.5 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent).
As for exports, DoSM said Malaysia’s NR amounted to 37,062 tonnes in May, a decrease of 1.8 per cent versus April’s 37,728 tonnes.
China remained the main destination for NR exports which accounted for 41.9 per cent of total exports in May, followed by Germany (16.3 per cent), Pakistan (3.7 per cent), Turkiye (2.9 per cent) and Portugal (1.6 per cent).
“The exports performance was contributed by NR-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, rubber thread as well as condoms, and gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM1.0 billion (US$214.1 million) in May 2023, an increase of 28.6 per cent as compared to RM0.8 billion (US$171.3 million) in April 2023,” it said.
The department also said that an analysis of the average monthly price showed that latex concentrated recorded a 1.3 per cent month-on-month decline to 488.76 sen per kilogramme (kg) in May, while scrap grew by 2.8 per cent to 478.02 sen per kg.
“Prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) are mixed with a decline of 1.2 per cent and increase of up to 2.2 per cent,” it pointed out.
Quoting the Malaysia Rubber Board Digest in May 2023, it said the positive sentiment of the Kuala Lumpur rubber market was boosted by the positive progress of the United States (US) debt ceiling negotiation, the decline in local NR production due to the heatwave phenomenon, and the weak ringgit against the US dollar.
— NNN-BERNAMA