Malaysia's natural rubber production falls 33.5 pct in April

Malaysia's natural rubber production in April fell 33.5 percent year-on-year to 23,013 tonnes, due to the seasonal factor which causes the trees to be less productive, official data showed Tuesday.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that on a month-on-month basis, the natural rubber production declined by 36.2 percent.

Meanwhile, natural rubber exports decreased by 5.4 percent to 55,696 tonnes in April as compared to 58,852 tonnes in March.

China remains as the main destination for natural rubber exports with a share of 57.4 percent of total exports in April, followed by Germany (8.1 percent), the United States (3.9 percent), Turkey (2.6 percent) and Finland (2.4 percent).

According to the DOSM, rubber gloves was the main export item with an export value of 6.7 billion ringgit (about 1.63 billion U.S. dollars) in April, an increase of 4.7 percent as compared to 6.4 billion ringgit in March.

The stocks of natural rubber, meanwhile, decreased by 7.9 percent to 259,355 tonnes in April as compared to 281,729 tonnes in March.

Total domestic consumption for natural rubber stood at 47,096 tonnes in April, an increase of 31.1 percent as compared to the same month last year.

However, on a month-on-month basis, the domestic consumption for natural rubber decreased by 5.3 percent.

The use of natural rubber in rubber glove manufacturing continues to lead with 34,716 tonnes, or 73.7 percent of the total domestic consumption in April.

This was followed by rubber thread 4,198 tonnes (8.9 percent), tyres and tube 3,588 tonnes (7.6 percent). Enditem