KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Natural Rubber (NR) production in Oct increased by 20.6 per cent to 38,400 tonnes compared to 31,847 tonnes in Sept, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
In its Monthly Rubber Statistics for Oct, the department noted that year-on-year (y-o-y) production grew by 16.6 per cent against 32,944 tonnes in Oct last year.
"Production of NR in Oct for Malaysia was mainly contributed by the smallholders sector (88.6 per cent) compared to the estates sector (11.4 per cent)," said DOSM.
Total stocks of NR in Oct increased by 1.9 per cent to 134,844 tonnes against 132,391 tonnes in Sept. Rubber processing factories contributed 88.1 per cent of the stocks, followed by rubber consumer factories (11.8 per cent) and rubber estates (0.1 per cent).
Meanwhile, DoSM said Malaysia's NR exports amounted to 48,151 tonnes in Oct, a 20.6 per cent increase against 39,930 tonnes in Sept.
China remained the largest destination for NR exports, accounting for 43.2 per cent of total exports in Oct, followed by Germany (9.8 per cent), the United Arab Emirates (9.2 per cent), the United States (4.8 per cent) and Portugal (2.8 per cent).
The export performance was largely driven by NR-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, and rubber thread, DOSM noted. Gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM1.5 billion in Oct 2024, an increase of 21.8 per cent compared with Sept (RM1.2 billion).
DOSM shared that the average monthly price analysis showed that concentrated latex saw an increase of 9.8 per cent reaching 746.36 sen per kg in Oct, compared to 679.65 sen per kg in September 2024, while scrap increased by 7.4 per cent from 687.01 sen per kg in Sept to 738.01 sen per kg in Oct.
Prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) grades rose between 6.2 per cent and 9.7 per cent, it noted.
According to the World Bank Commodity Price Data, the prices for TSR 20 (Technically Specified Rubber) increased by 5.4 per cent from US$1.91/kg to US$2.01/kg, while Singapore/Malaysia dropped 0.7 per cent from US$2.65/kg to US$2.63/kg.
The Malaysia Rubber Board Digest published in October 2024 noted that the Kuala Lumpur rubber market was mixed during the review period, with SMR 20 prices fluctuating within the tight range and slightly declining towards month end.
"The market sentiment was generally supported by a shortage of global NR supply due to adverse weather conditions in major producing countries, a more positive NR demand outlook reported by the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries, and the latest report by the International Monetary Fund," it added.
In addition, DOSM launched OpenDOSM NextGen as a platform that provides a data catalogue and visualisations to facilitate users analysis. It is accessible at https://open.dosm.gov.my. — BERNAMA
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