Malaysia: Oct rubber output falls 2.6% y-o-y, imports up 52.3%

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 12): Malaysia’s production of natural rubber in October 2012 dropped by 2.6% year-on-year (y-o-y), but imports increased by 52.3% year-on-year, according to the Department of Statistics (DOS) Malaysia today.

In a statement today, the DOS said production of natural rubber (NR) in October 2012 was recorded at 2,209 tonnes, 2.6% lower than October 2011.

However, NR total production was recorded at 83,591 tonnes which increased by 14.8% from the previous month.

In October 2012, 93,061 tonnes of NR was imported by Malaysia mainly from Thailand and Vietnam. This was an increase of 16.4% as compared to September 2012 and 52.3% as compared to October 2011

As for exports, a total of 66,681 tonnes of NR was exported in October 2012. This was up 10.5% month-on-month, and down 15.6% year-on-year.

NR was mainly exported to China (42.6%), Germany (14.5%), U.S.A. (5.6%), Iran (4.4%), Korea (3.4%), Portugal (2.9%) and Brazil as well as Mexico (2.3% respectively).

The total domestic consumption of NR in October 2012 increased by 3.2% from September 2012 to 38,197 tonnes, and and increase of 7.5% year-on-year.

The rubber gloves industry was the highest consuming industry of NR at 26,033 tonnes (68.2%), followed by rubber thread (9.8%) and tyre & tubes (5.9%). These three industries consumed a total of 32,030, accounting for 83.9% of the country’s consumption.

At end-October 2012, NR stocks stood at 148,490 tonnes, up by 10.8% as compared to the previous month. Additionally, NR stocks also increased by 6.5% when compared to the level of stocks a year ago.

Average monthly price of latex concentrate was at 616.20 sen per kilogramme, up by 5% to 29.49 sen when compared to September 2012, however year-on-year average price of latex concentrate was lower by 23.5% to 198.80 sen as at October 2011.

Source: theedgemalaysia.com