EXPORT of natural rubber (NR) fell six per cent to 42,658 tonnes in August 2020 from the 45,386 tonnes in July 2020, with China being the largest export destination, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
The main natural rubber export destination is China with a share of 46.8 per cent from total exports in August 2020 followed by Germany (10.1 per cent), Finland (4.3 per cent), Iran (3 per cent) and Turkey (2.4 per cent), chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a statement today.
He said rubber gloves was the main export item with an export value of RM3 billion in August 2020. However, the export value decreased by 5.2 per cent compared to RM3.2 billion in July 2020.
NR production increased 6.6 per cent in August 2020 to 44,543 tonnes compared to 41,801 tonnes in the previous month, while comparing with the same month a year ago, it recorded a decrease of 22.7 per cent.
Its (NR) stocks showed a declining trend since May 2020 and it declined further in August 2020 by 0.7 per cent to 233,537 tonnes compared to 235,156 tonnes in July 2020.
“The average price of latex concentrate recorded an increase of 467.71 sen per kilogramme (kg) compared to July 2020 (467.20 sen per kg) and the Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 also increased to 538.68 sen kg compared to 497.86 sen per kg for the same period”.
DOSM also reported that the domestic consumption of NR in August 2020 was 46,745 tonnes, a decrease of 0.6 per cent compared to the previous month.
The rubber glove industry dominates the use of natural rubber with 35,542 tonnes, or 76 per cent, of total domestic consumption.
