Malaysia’s rubber industry is eyeing potential growth through production of high-value engineering rubber products following rising demand from many countries, according to Malaysia’s Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong.
He said Malaysia had the ability to produce high-value engineering rubber products used especially in the field of vibration and earthquake engineering. Mah said Malaysian manufacturers had installed and supplied rubber seismic bearings to high-seismic activity countries like New Zealand, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey and China.
“Our rubber products are of world standard, so the rubber industry is definitely not a sunset industry,” he told reporters after visiting the Doshin Rubber Products (M) Sdn Bhd factory in Klang.
Mah said rubber downstream products in Malaysia would be part of the 2050 National Transformation efforts towards producing high-technology and high value-added products.
He also lauded Doshin, one of Malaysia’s largest manufacturers of rubber products for engineering purposes, for not only producing structural bearings, but also being a major player in earthquake protection and vibration insulation industry.
Mah said the export of structural bearings, categorised as technical products in the general and industrial rubber goods sector, recorded significant improvement in recent years.
He said Malaysia’s export of structural bearings rose by 36.2% to RM14.14million in 2016 from RM10.38million in 2015.