Natural rubber production surged 36.7 pct in December vs November 2021 - DOSM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's natural rubber production increased by 36.7 per cent to 41,690 tonnes in December 2021 compared with November's 30,493 tonnes, said the Statistics Department Malaysia (DoSM).

In its December 2021 monthly rubber statistics publication released today, the department said on a year-on-year comparison, natural rubber declined by 16.3 per cent against 49,825 tonnes in December 2020.

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said December's natural rubber production was mainly contributed by the smallholders sector (91 per cent) versus estates sector (9 per cent).

He said total stocks of natural rubber increased 5.9 per cent to 285,208 tonnes in December 2021 compared to 269,421 tonnes in November 2021.

"Rubber processors factories contributed 91.8 per cent of the stocks followed by rubber consumers factories (8.1 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent).

Exports shrunk by 24.5 per cent to 45,982 tonnes in December 2021 against 60,942 tonnes a month ago.

China continued to be the biggest natural rubber importer, taking up 41.5 per cent of total exports in December 2021, followed by Finland (10.7 per cent), Pakistan (4.2 per cent), Turkey (3.2 per cent) and Germany (2.5 per cent), said Mohd Uzir.

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

Gloves formed the bulk of rubber-based exports valued at RM2.3 billion in December 2021, a decline of 6.5 per cent compared with RM2.5 billion in the preceding month, he said.

The average monthly price of latex concentrate eased 2.6 per cent month-on-month (m-o-m). It was 539.45 sen per kilogramme (kg) in December against November's 553.64 sen per kg.

A similar trend was also observed for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) which slipped between 1.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent, the DoSM release said.

Natural rubber production fell 13.1 per cent to 115,310 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2021 versus 132,732 tonnes in the preceding quarter.

Overall, on an annual basis, the department said natural rubber production slipped 8.7 per cent to 469,669 tonnes in 2021 compared with 514,702 tonnes in 2020.

-- BERNAMA