Natural rubber production increased 3.7% in September 2020 to 46,187 tonnes from 44,543 tonnes in the previous month.
According to Bernama, natural rubber, however, recorded a decrease of 25.2%, compared to the same month a year earlier, according to the Department of Statistics in the Monthly Rubber Statistics for September 2020 released today.
“Malaysia's natural rubber exports amounted to 48,720 tonnes in September 2020, an increase of 14.2% compared to 42,658 tonnes in August 2020.
"China continues to be the main destination for natural rubber exports, accounting for 46.0% of total exports in September 2020, followed by Germany (13.2%), Iran (3.8%), Finland (3.3%) and Brazil (3.1%)," according to Chief Statistician Datuk Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin Series.
He said rubber gloves were the main export item with export value increasing by 25.6% from RM3.0 billion in August 2020 to RM3.8 billion in September 2020.
Among the highest exports of these glove products are the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Natural rubber stocks increased in September 2020 by 255,140 tonnes compared with 233,492 tonnes in August 2020 with an increase of 9.3 percent.
The average price of concentrated latex in September 2020 recorded an increase to 484.57 sen per kilogram compared to August 2020 (467.71 sen per kilogram).
"Malaysian Quality Rubber 20 (GMM 20) also increased to 558.50 sen per kilogram compared to 538.68 sen per kilogram for the same period," said Mohd Uzir.
According to the department, the consumption of natural rubber at the domestic level in September 2020 was 45,207 tonnes, down 2.9% from the previous month.
The rubber glove manufacturing industry is a major industry with consumption of 34,016 tonnes or 75.21% of the total domestic consumption.
