KUALA LUMPUR (June 15): The Monthly Rubber Census for April 2020 stated that the production of natural rubber increased 0.3% in the month to 34,616 tonnes compared with 34,506 tonnes in the previous month.
The report, released by the Department of Statistic Malaysia (DOSM), stated that the year-on-year (y-o-y) comparison also showed an increase of 2% from the same month of the previous year.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said exports of Malaysia's natural rubber decreased by 10.2% to 40,596 tonnes in April 2020 from 45,198 tonnes in March.

China remained the primary natural rubber export destination, with a share of 48.9% of total exports in March, followed by Germany (12.1%), the US (6.2%), Iran (5.3%) and Taiwan (3.5%).
“The highest exports were glove items valued at RM1,984.4 million in April, an increase of 11.6% compared to March,” he told a media briefing on the monthly labour force and rubber statistics here today.
Mohd Uzir said Malaysia exported the highest number of gloves to the US, accounting for 97,905 tonnes in April compared with 24,737 tonnes in March, an increase of 295.8%, followed by China (28.8%) and Germany (9.9%), driven by high demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The average price of latex concentrate recorded a decline of 413.26 sen per kilogramme (kg) in April compared to March (435.66 sen per kg). Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 (SMR 20) also dropped to 472.64 sen per kg compared with 517.45 sen per kg in the same period,” he said.
Mohd Uzair said the stocks of natural rubber continuously increased by 0.5% from 319,486 tonnes in March to 321,214 tonnes in April.
“The manufacture of rubber gloves continued to dominate the natural rubber manufacturing industry with 35,080 tonnes or 89.5% of total domestic consumption (39,208 tonnes) in April,” he added.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/natural-rubber-production-increases-03-april-34616-tonnes
Source: theedgemarkets.com