THE production of natural rubber decreased 27.6% in March 2021 to 36,068 tonnes compared with 49,840 tonnes in the previous month, said the Statistics Department

On the contrary, on a year-on-year basis, production showed an increase of 4.5%.

Chief statistician Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the stocks of natural rubber decreased 1.6% in March to 281,672 tonnes from 286,117 tonnes in February.

Exports of Malaysia’s natural rubber amounted to 58,852 tonnes in March, an increase of 7.7% against 54,632 tonnes in February, he said.

China remains the main destination for natural rubber exports with a share of 51.8% of total exports in March, followed by Germany (6.4%), Finland (5.3%), United States (4.8%) and Brazil (2.3%).

”Rubber gloves was the main export item with an export value of RM6.4 billion in March, an increase of 9.4% compared with February (RM5.8 billion).

“US was the highest importer of rubber gloves followed by Germany and China,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Uzir said the average price for latex concentrate and Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 (SMR 20) for March was the highest recorded in the first quarter of this year.

“The average price of latex concentrate recorded an increase of 680.20 sen per kg compared with February (587.91 sen per kg).

“SMR 20 also showed an increase from 672.68 sen per kg to 707.89 sen per kg for the same period,” he said.

The department also reported that the domestic consumption of natural rubber in March was 49,718 tonnes, an increase of 11.2% from the previous month.

The rubber glove manufacturing industry continued to lead the use of natural rubber with the use of 37,435 tonnes or 75.3% of the total domestic consumption in March. – Bernama, May 6, 2021.