August natural rubber output up 11.1%

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's natural rubber production in August 2017 increased by 11.1% to 61,252 tonnes against 55,121 tonnes in the previous month, according to Department of Statistics.
The department said in a statement today, the main contributor of natural rubber production is from smallholding sector with a contribution of 93%.
It said the average monthly price of latex concentrate rose by 5% to 543.52 sen per kilogramme (kg) from July 2017, while Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 went up by 1.4% to 644.25 sen per kg.
Malaysia's natural rubber exports increased by 17.1% to 55,563 tonnes as compared to July 2017. The five main destinations of natural rubber exports were China, Germany, Iran, US and Finland.
Domestic consumption of natural rubber increased by 2% to 41,715 tonnes within the same period. Rubber gloves industry remains as the main domestic consumer with consumption of 73.3%.
At the end of August 2017, level of natural rubber stocks went up by 1.1% to 194,281 tonnes, it added.