KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s natural rubber production decreased marginally by 2.7% to 28,030 tonnes in March 2022 compared with February’s 28,817 tonnes, said the Statistics Department.
In its March 2022 monthly rubber statistics publication released today, the department said on a year-on-year comparison, natural rubber production also slid by 22.3% compared with 36,068 tonnes in March 2021.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin said March’s natural rubber production was mainly contributed by the smallholders sector (88.3%) compared with the estates sector (11.7%).
He said total stocks of natural rubber in March 2022 decreased by 4.4% to 310,332 tonnes compared with 324,659 tonnes in February 2022.
“Rubber processor factories contributed 93.2% of stock followed by rubber consumers’ factories (6.7%) and rubber estates (0.1%),” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Uzir said exports of Malaysia’s natural rubber amounted to 53,328 tonnes in March 2022, an increase of 12.5% against 47,386 tonnes in February 2022.
“China remained the main destination for natural rubber exports, accounting for 50.6% of total exports in March 2022, followed by Finland (5.9%), Iran (4.1%), Germany (3.4%), and Turkey (3.2%),” he said.
He added that the exports’ performance was contributed by natural rubber-based products such as gloves, tyre, tube, rubber threads, and condoms.
Uzir said that gloves were the main exports for rubber-based products with a value of RM2.1 billion in March 2022, an increase of 9.1% compared with RM2 billion in February 2022.
He said global natural rubber production in 2022 is expected to grow at a slower rate of 1.9% while consumption will be at 1.2% due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and labour shortages as stated by the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries in a monthly report published on April 22.
On the annual performance, he said Malaysia’s natural rubber production in the first quarter of 2022 slipped 18.8% compared with 131,643 tonnes in 2021. – Bernama, May 11, 2022
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