Malaysia's Natural Rubber Exports Up 0.4% in July

Malaysia's natural rubber (NR) exports in July 2014 increased by 187 tonnes, or 0.4%, to 51,772 tonnes compared with the previous month, said Malaysia's Statistics Department.

In a statement, the department said exports fell 25.8% compared with July last year, according to the Malaysian (Bernama) News Agency.

It said Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) contributed 95.0 per cent to the total exports, with 50.9 per cent of that comprising SMR 20.

"NR was exported mainly to China (34.4%), followed by Germany (16.7%), the United States (5.4%), Brazil (4.3%), Iran (7.6%), Finland (2.3%), Mexico (2.3%) and Poland (3.1%).

NR imports in July 2014 rose by 13.6% to 82,578 tonnes from June 2014.

Compared with July 2013, imports fell by 8.6% to 90,350 tonnes.

The department said production for the month under review totalled 60,111 tonnes, down 27.5% year-on-year (yoy), with the smallholding sector contributing 91.1% while the estate sector constituted 8.9%.

Total NR for domestic consumption in July eased by 6.5% to 36,352 tonnes, with the rubber gloves industry being the largest consuming sector at 74.3%, followed by tyre and tubes (6.2%) and rubber thread (7.8%).