Natural Rubber Production Slumps 3.6% in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR:

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM), natural rubber (NR) production in Malaysia decreased by 3.6% from 30,556 tonnes in December 2022 to 29,451 tonnes in January 2023.

DoSM reported that NR production decreased by 39.3 percent from 48,546 tonnes in January 2023 to 48,546 tonnes in comparison to the previous year.

It stated that smallholders contributed 84.2% of NR production in January 2023, while the estate sector contributed 15.8%.

It also stated that total NR stocks decreased by 3.4% in January 2023 to 194,553 tonnes, down from 201,360 tonnes in December 2022.

It stated, “Rubber processors factory contributed 90.7% of the stocks, followed by rubber consumers factory (9.2%) and rubber estates (0.1%).”

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DoSM reported a 16.3% decrease in NR exports from 48,797 tonnes in December 2022 to 40,867 tonnes in January 2023.

According to the report, “China remained as the main destination for NR exports, which accounted for 41.2% of total exports in January 2023,” followed by Turkiye (5.4%), Germany (5.1%), the United States (3.6%), and Brazil (2.7%).

Latex concentrated saw an increase of 6.8% in January 2023 to 502.05 sen per kilogram (kg), compared to 470.21 sen per kg in December 2022. Scrap saw an increase of 0.6% to 463.84 sen per kg, compared to 461.20 sen per kg in December 2022.

It also stated that prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR)  Production increased by between 1.7% and 6.7% in January 2023 in  Malaysia comparison to the month before.