Natural rubber export increases 13.5 per cent in February to 54,632 tonnes

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s natural rubber exports increased 13.5 per cent to 54,632 tonnes in February 2021 compared to 48,125 tonnes in the previous month, said the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said China remains as the main destination for natural rubber exports with a 40.5 per cent share of total exports in February 2021, followed by Belgium (12.6 per cent), Germany (8.4 per cent), Finland (3.9 per cent), and the US (2.7 per cent).

He said rubber gloves were the main export item with an export value of RM5.8 billion in February 2021, an increase of 3.9 per cent compared to RM5.6 billion in January 2021.

The US led as the largest importer of rubber gloves followed by Germany and China, he added.

“Production of natural rubber increased 9.0 per cent to 49,840 tonnes in February 2021 compared to 45,735 tonnes in the previous month.

“On the contrary, year-onyear comparison showed a decrease of 0.1 per cent,” Mohd Uzir said in a statement on the monthly rubber statistics yesterday.

The stocks of natural rubber increased 1.9 per cent to 286,117 tonnes in February 2021 compared to 280,841 tonnes in

January 2021.

The average price of latex concentrate rose 587.91 sen per kilogramme (kg) compared to 550.26 sen per kg in January 2021, while Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 (SMR 20) surged to 672.68 sen per kg from 628.58 sen per kg.

The DOSM said, however, domestic consumption of natural rubber decreased 5.1 per cent to 44,697 tonnes in February 2021 from the previous month. The use of natural rubber in the rubber glove manufacturing industry continued to lead with the use of 34,764 tonnes or 77.8 per cent of the total domestic consumption in February 2021. — Bernama