KLANG: Malaysia’s rubber industry is resilient, as downstream businesses continue to invest in the manufacture of high-value exports such as rubber seismic bearings, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong.
He lauded Malaysia’s entrepreneurs for producing high-value engineering rubber products used specifically in buildings and infrastructure located at earthquake prone countries.
The Second Penang Bridge, which was completed in 2014, was installed with high-damping rubber bearings. In Indonesia, Doshin Rubber Products (M) Sdn Bhd’s patented ultra-high damping rubber bearing system is used in isolating a university hospital and the Wika Tower.
In the past two decades, Malaysian exporters have installed and supplied rubber seismic bearings to earthquake-prone countries like New Zealand, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey and China.
Last year, Malaysia’s export of structural bearings rose 36.2 per cent to RM14.14 million from 2015’s value of RM10.38 million.
“Our rubber seismic bearings are of world standard. I'm happy to note that Malaysia's rubber industry is resilient as we continue to add value to the supply chain,” the minister told reporters today during a visit to Doshin Rubber factory here.
Mah said rubber downstreaming would be part of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 2050 National Transformation programme in producing more precision technology and higher value-added products.
Doshin had, recently invested in a highly sophisticated testing machine that can withstand 5,000 tonnes of compression force and 1,000mm of shear displacement.
The minister praised Doshin for consistently fulfilling international standards such as ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22762 for elastomeric seismic protection isolators and tested by laboratories with ISO/IEC 17025 certificate.