The Monthly Rubber Census for reference February 2020 was conducted in March 2020, prior to the announcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO). Activities of collecting statistics in the industry especially on production was not affected after the MCO's announcement during that period.
However, the census showed that Malaysia's natural rubber production decreased 29.2 per cent in February 2020 to 46,881 tonnes as compared to 66,232 tonnes in the previous month. Comparison year on year also showed a decrease of 20.6 per cent as compared to the same month in the previous year. This declining trend is due to the annual wintering period that typically falls between February and May. This is a normal cycle of rubber trees where the leaves of the tree wither and fall. This scenario significantly affected both the principal metabolism and latex production.
Exports of Malaysia's natural rubber amounted 51,852 tonnes, increased by 13.1 per cent against 45,827 tonnes in January 2020. This is supported by an increase in the closing stock in January 2020 with an increase of 17.8 percent compared to December 2019. Likewise, the stocks of natural rubber recorded an increase of 2.7 per cent from 288,586 tonnes in January 2020 to 296,328 tonnes in current month. The primary natural rubber export destination is People’s Republic of China with a share of 47.1 per cent from total exports in February 2020 followed by Germany (9.7%), Iran (4.1%), Taiwan (3.5%) and Finland (2.9%).
Average price of Latex Concentrate was 456.73 sen per kilogramme in February 2020, decreased by 0.6 per cent as compared to January 2020. The average price of Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 (S.M.R. 20) also showed a decreased by 6.9 per cent to 549.68 sen per kilogramme for the same period.
Total domestic consumption of natural rubber was 41,512 tonnes, a decrease of 1.2 per cent against 42,015 tonnes as recorded in January 2020. Rubber gloves industry dominates the use of natural rubber with 31,684 tonnes or 76.3 per cent of the total domestic consumption.