In its December 2021 monthly rubber statistics publication released today, the department said on a year-on-year comparison, natural rubber declined by 16.3% against 49,825 tonnes in December 2020.

Chief Statistician Uzir Mahidin said December’s natural rubber production was mainly contributed by the smallholders sector (91%) versus estates sector (9%).

He said total stocks of natural rubber increased 5.9% to 285,208 tonnes in December 2021 compared to 269,421 tonnes in November 2021.

“Rubber processors factories contributed 91.8% of the stocks followed by rubber consumers factories7 (8.1%) and rubber estates (0.1%).

Exports shrunk by 24.5% to 45,982 tonnes in December 2021 against 60,942 tonnes a month ago.

China continued to be the biggest natural rubber importer, taking up 41.5% of total exports in December 2021, followed by Finland (10.7%), Pakistan (4.2%), Turkey (3.2%) and Germany (2.5%), said Uzir.

Export performance was contributed by natural rubber-based products such as gloves, tyres, tubes, rubber thread and condoms.

Gloves formed the bulk of rubber-based exports valued at RM2.3 billion in December 2021, a decline of 6.5% compared with RM2.5 billion in the preceding month.

The average monthly price of latex concentrate eased 2.6% month-on-month (m-o-m). It was 539.45 sen per kg in December against November’s 553.64 sen per kg.

A similar trend was also observed for all standard Malaysian rubber which slipped between 1.2% to 2.5%, the release added.

Natural rubber production fell 13.1% to 115,310 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2021 versus 132,732 tonnes in the preceding quarter.

Overall, on an annual basis, the department said natural rubber production slipped 8.7% to 469,669 tonnes in 2021 compared with 514,702 tonnes in 2020.