Malaysia: Nov natural rubber production dn 20.8% on-month, prices decline

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 12): Malaysia’s production of natural rubber (NR) fell in November to 67,936 tonnes, down 20.8% or 17,864 tonnes from October, which was much steeper than the decline in domestic consumption while prices also remained low.

The Statistics Department said on Thursday the November output fell 5,164 tonnes (or down 7.1%) from a year ago.

Despite the decline, the overall average monthly price of NR in November was low as the average price of latex concentrate dropped 113.62 sen (-14.1%) to 692.38 sen on-month while it fell 152.05 sen (-18.0%) on-year.

It said domestic consumption of NR fell on-month and on-year. A total of 33,833 tonnes were consumed locally, down 1,729 tonnes (4.9%) from October while it fell 1,138 tonnes (3.3%) from a year ago.

“Rubber gloves industry was the main consumer of NR in Malaysia (68.2%), followed by rubber thread (10.8%) and tyre & tubes industries (7.8%). These three industries constituted 29,400 tonnes (86.9%) of the overall domestic consumption of NR,” it said.

At the end of November, the level of stocks of NR totalled at 135,254 tonnes, down 4,200 tonnes (3.0%) from October but it rose 2.9% on year.

As for exports, the department said 66,302 tonnes of NR was exported in November 2011, down 12,665 tonnes (16.0%) on-month and a decline of 16,893 tonnes (20.3%) on-year.

The department said the Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) accounted for 95.4% of total NR exports whereby 56.3% comprised of S.M.R. 20 type.

It said China accounted for nearly half of the NR exports in November at 43.6%, Germany (10.0%), Korea (5.8%), Brazil (2.8%), US (2.7%), Belgium (2.4%), Finland (2.2%) and Netherlands (2.0%).