KUALA LUMPUR: The country’s production of natural rubber (NR) in September declined 1.3% to 71,921 tonnes year-on-year, but exports increased 32.3% to 79,808 tonnes compared to September of 2012, the Department of Statistic Malaysia reported.
According to the figures released, China was the main destination for exports of NR (41.2%), followed by Germany (14.4%), Iran (11.1%), Brazil (4.1%), the US (3.9%), South Korea (3.3%), Finland (2.3%) and Portugal (1.8%).
Total exports to these countries accounted for 82.1% of Malaysia’s overall NR exports.
Meanwhile, imports in September amounted to 87,288 tonnes, an increase of 9.1% from a year before when it was 79,968 tonnes. The main type of NR imported was Standard Rubber (37.4%) and Latex Concentrate (32.1%).
NR was imported mainly from Thailand (47.7%) and Vietnam (32.5%). These two countries accounted for 80.2% of the total NR imports in September 2013.
Domestic consumption of NR was recorded at 37,429 tonnes – an increase of 410 tonnes or 1.1% from a year earlier, with rubber gloves the largest NR consuming industry at 25,001 tonnes (66.8%) followed by rubber thread (12.9%) and tyre and tubes (6.6%).
These three industries together consumed 32,318 tonnes (86.3%) of NR.
At the end of September 2013, total stocks of NR was recorded at 166,867 tonnes, an increase of 24.5% from a year ago. Rubber processors held the biggest share of NR stocks (89.7%).
The average monthly price of NR registered an increase in September this year.
The average price of latex concentrate was recorded at 555.40 sen, up 28.37 sen or 5.4% from the previous month. However, the average price of latex concentrate dropped 31.31 sen or 5.3% year-on-year.
Similarly, the price of Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 was 776.68 sen, up by 13.68 sen (1.8%) from August this year but dropped 52.45 sen (-6.3%) from a year ago.
In September 2013, a total of 12,551 persons were engaged in the rubber estates where 12,547 were paid employees with salaries and wages amounting to RM15.8 million. The number of paid employees for this month reduced by 1.4% for month-on-month
The major NR producers were smallholders, who contributed 92.6% with the estate sector only making up 7.4%.
Source: thestar.com.my
