The Malaysian Department of Statistics announced recently that natural rubber production fell 2.0 % in January 2018 to 65,792 tonnes from 67,101 tonnes produced in the previous month.
Stocks rose 10.5 % to 254,525 tonnes at the end of January compared to 230,300 tonnes in the preceding month.
The smallholdings sector accounted for more than 92.9 % of the rubber produced in January.
Exports in the month under review decreased 9.7 % to 46,928 tonnes and the five main destinations for Malaysia’s natural rubber were China, Germany, Iran, Vietnam and Brazil.
Meanwhile, domestic consumption of natural rubber increased 1.6 % to 44,302 tonnes in January versus 43,617 tonnes consumed in the previous month.
In terms of rubber usage, the rubber glove industry accounted for 74.2 % followed by rubber threads (9.4 %), tyres and tubes (6.4 %) and others (10.0 %).