KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s natural rubber (NR) production decreased by 39% month-on-month (m-o-m) to 29,920 tonnes in February 2022 against 49,087 tonnes in January 2022, says the Statistics Department.

       Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said year-on-year (y-o-y), consumption also showed that the production of NR decreased by 40% from February 2021 of 49,840 tonnes.

       “The production of NR in February for Malaysia was mainly contributed by smallholders sector (88.4%) and the estate sector (11.6%),” he said in a statement yesterday.

       Mohd Uzir said the decline in NR production was in line with The Association of Natural Rubber Producing countries January-February monthly report, which stated that despite the positive sentiment in the NR market, there were also a number of challenges that may hinder its growth.

       In terms of supply, it was heavily influenced by adverse climate, manpower shortages in natural rubber-producing countries amid the increased proliferation in Covid-19 variants and Omicron cases around the world and a tapping off season that may exacerbate raw material supply congestion in the month ahead, Bernama reported.

       Total stocks of natural rubber increased 2.8% in February 2022 to 318,699 tonnes as compared to 310,002 tonnes in January 2022.

       Rubber processors factory was contributing 93.5% of the final stocks followed by rubber consumers factory (6.4%) and rubber estates (0.1%).

       Exports of Malaysia’s NR amounted to 47,682 tonnes in February 2022, a decrease of 6.8% as against January 2022 (51,160 tonnes).

       China continued to dominate as the highest importer of natural rubber with 50.8% of total exports in February 2022 followed by the United States (5.1%), Germany (3.5%), Turkey (3.4%) and Brazil (2.1%).

       “The export performance was contributed by natural rubber-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, rubber threads and condoms.

       Gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM1.9bil in February 2022, a decrease of 13.5% compared with January 2022 of RM2.2bil,” he said.

       According to the Statistics Department, an analysis of the average monthly price showed that latex concentrate recorded an increase of 15% to 658.14 sen per kg in February 2022 versus 572.08 sen per kg in January 2022.

       Meanwhile, scrap was 0.6% higher at 606.41 sen per kg in February 2022 against 603.05 sen per kg in January 2022.

       Similar trend was also observed for all Standard Malaysian Rubber which increased between 0.9% and 14.9%.

       Citing the World Bank Commodity Price Data report, the Statistics Department said the Technically Specified Rubber price increased by 0.6 % from US$1.78 (RM7.53) per kg to US$1.79 (RM7.57) per kg m-o-m, while the Singapore and Malaysia type increased 7.0% from US$1.97 (RM8.33) per kg to US$2.11 (RM8.92) per kg.

       On the Russia-Ukraine war, Mohd Uzir said prices of rubber in the international market would be affected as Russia is a major exporter of synthetic rubber, mainly polybutadiene rubber and isoprene rubber.

       One of its main end uses is the production of tyres.

       In 2020, Russia exported US$1.34bil (RM5.67bil) in synthetic rubber, making it the sixth largest exporter of synthetic rubber in the world.