Summary Of Monthly Rubber Statistics Malaysia April 2013 (Updated: 12/06/2013)

1. PRODUCTION

A total of 42,881 tonnes of natural rubber (NR) was produced in April 2013, decreased by 27,423 tonnes (-39.0%) from March 2013. Year-on-year comparison shows a decrease of 18,445 tonnes (-30.1%) The smallholding sector contributed 93.6% of total production while the estate sector, the remaining 6.4%. The states which produce the highest NR on estates was Kedah (22.8%), followed by Perak (18.8%) and Negeri Sembilan (15.3%).

2. EXPORTS

Exports of Malaysia's NR in April 2013 amounted to 61,342 tonnes. Comparison with the previous month and a year ago, shows that exports dropped by 12,407 tonnes (-16.8%) and 4,432 tones (-6.7%). From the total of NR exports, 93.4 per cent was contributed by the Standard Malaysian Rubber (S.M.R.) with 52.2 per cent comprised of S.M.R. 20.

NR was mainly exported to People's Rep. of China (40.8%), followed by Germany (12.5%), Islamic Rep. of Iran (6.9%), Rep. of Korea (4.1%), Finland (3.6%) U.S.A. (2.8%), Brazil (2.6%) and South Africa (2.4%).

3. IMPORTS

The total imports of NR in April 2013 amounted to 55,602 tonnes. Import decreased by 18,112 tonnes (-24.6%) from March 2013 and 5,643 tonnes (-9.2%) from April 2012. Latex Concentrate and Standard Rubber were the main type of NR imported, at 48.6 per cent and 26.4 per cent respectively.

The main supplier of NR were Thailand (61.2%) and Viet Nam (9.4%). These two countries accounted for 70.6 per cent of the total imports of NR.

4. DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION

Domestic consumption of NR in April 2013 was recorded at 35,349 tonnes, reduced by 1,955 tonnes (-5.2%) when compared to March 2013. Compared with the same month in 2012, domestic consumption also shrank by 686 tonnes (-1.9%).

The highest consuming industry of NR was the rubber gloves industry with a total of 25,671 tonnes (72.6%), followed by rubber thread (7.9%) and tyres & tubes (6.7%). The total consumption of these three industries constituted 87.2% of the overall domestic consumption of NR.

5. STOCKS

In April 2013, the level of stocks declined by 34,080 tonnes (-19.3%) from the level of stocks of previous month to 142,069 tonnes. However, the level of stocks rose by 24,458 tonnes (+20.8%) compared to the same month last year.

6. AVERAGE MONTHLY PRICE PER KILOGRAM
(Noon Quotations - F.O.B.)

In April 2013, the average monthly price of latex concentrate was recorded at 581.25 sen per kilogramme, dropped by 32.00 sen (-5.2%) from the previous month and 170.62 sen (-22.7%) when compared to April 2012.

The average monthly price of S.M.R. 20 was recorded at 749.09 sen per kilogramme, dropped by 108.11 sen (-12.6%) from March 2013 and 351.38 sen (-31.9%) from April 2012.

7. EMPLOYMENT

At the end of April 2013, a total of 12,895 persons were engaged in the rubber estates. From the total, 12,891 persons were paid employees with total salaries & wages paid amounting to RM13.1 million. The number of paid employees went up by 1.0 per cent from March 2013 and 3.4 per cent from April 2012 respectively

8. PRODUCTIVITY

In April 2013, the productivity of NR production on estates was recorded at 64.8 kilogramme per hectare. Productivity of NR production shows a decrease when compared to month-on-month and year-on-year at 26.6 kilogramme per hectare (-29.0%) and 4.0 kilogramme per hectare (-5.8%) respectively.

Notes:

1. This report can be accessed through the website of the Department of Statistics, Malaysia (http://www.statistics.gov.my) under the section: Statistical Releases.

2. Data for April 2013 is provisional. The data will be updated based on the latest available figures and subsequently published in the May 2013 publication.