Year-on-year, NR production was 0.7% lower compared with 30,556 tonnes in December 2022.
Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said the NR production in December 2023 was mainly contributed by the smallholders’ sector (88%) compared to the estates’ sector (12%).
“Total NR stocks in December 2023 increased by 11% to 191,320 tonnes as compared to 172,307 tonnes in November 2023.
“Rubber processors factory contributed 91.1% of the stocks followed by rubber consumers factory (8.9%) and rubber estates (0.1%),” he said in a statement today.
Uzir noted that exports of Malaysia’s NR amounted to 45,591 tonnes in December 2023, a decrease of 11.7% versus November 2023’s 51,643 tonnes.
He said China remained the main destination for NR exports, which accounted for 41.5% of total exports in December 2023, followed by Germany (12.7%), Iran (3.9%), the US (3.8%) and Pakistan (2.8%).
“Exports performance was contributed by NR-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, rubber thread, and condoms.
“Gloves were the main exports of rubber-based products with a value of RM0.9 billion in December 2023, a decrease of 5.9% as compared to November 2023 (RM1 billion),” he said.
The statistics department said the average monthly price of concentrated latex recorded a decrease of 2.2% in December 2023 to 537.63 sen per kg from 549.67 sen per kg in November 2023.
Meanwhile, scrap rubber was also down by 3.4% to 542.89 sen per kg in the month compared to 562.24 sen per kg in the preceding month.
It added that prices for all Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) decreased between 2.1% and 2.2%.
“The performance of the fourth quarter of 2023 (Q4 2023) showed NR production increased by 1.5% to 93,956 tonnes as compared to 92,599 tonnes in Q3 2023,” it said.
Meanwhile, the annual performance of the country’s NR production in Q4 2023 recorded an increase of 3.9% compared to Q4 2022 (90,399 tonnes).
Recently, the Malaysia Rubber Board Digest said the Kuala Lumpur rubber market witnessed a mixed trend.
“The price of SMR 20 closed higher on the last trading day of 2023, supported by optimism over more stimulus measures announced by China coupled with an expectation that the US Federal Reserve would start cutting interest rates in 2024,” it said.