KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Malaysia saw a 3.6 per cent fall in natural rubber (NR) production to 29,451 tonnes month-on-month (m-o-m) in January 2023 from 30,556 tonnes in December 2022, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM).
In its monthly rubber statistics released today, DoSM said NR production shrank 39.3 per cent in January 2023 from 48,546 tonnes compared with the same month last year.
It said 84.2 per cent of NR production in January 2023 was contributed by smallholders with the remaining 15.8 per cent from the estate sector.
It added that total NR stocks slipped 3.4 per cent to 194,553 tonnes in January 2023 versus 201,360 tonnes in December 2022.
“Rubber processors factory contributed 90.7 per cent of the stocks, followed by rubber consumers factory (9.2 per cent ) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent),” it said.
On NR exports, DoSM said that declined 16.3 per cent to 40,867 tonnes in January 2023 from 48,797 tonnes in December 2022.
“China remained as the main destination for NR exports, which accounted for 41.2 per cent of total exports in January 2023, followed by Turkiye (5.4 per cent), Germany (5.1 per cent), the United States (3.6 per cent) and Brazil (2.7 per cent),” it said.
The average monthly price showed that latex concentrated recorded an increase of 6.8 per cent in January 2023 to 502.05 sen per kilogramme (kg) against 470.21 sen per kg in December 2022, while scrap ticked up 0.6 per cent to 463.84 sen per kg versus 461.20 sen per kg in December 2022.
Prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) rose between 1.7 per cent and 6.7 per cent in January 2023 compared with the previous month, it added.
— Bernama
