The Malaysian rubber industry is expected to maintain its resilience next year, driven by higher export earnings of rubber products as well as stronger demand for rubber gloves.

Malaysian Rubber Board director, General Datuk Dr. Salmiah Ahmad, said rubber products would continue to be the main contributor to the industry in terms of export earnings and it was expected to hit RM 40.5 billion next year. “This would be a jump in the export contribution of the rubber industry as a whole, estimated at RM 38 billion for 2013,” she told Bernama. She said for the rubber products sector, about 25 percent of Malaysia’s total export went to the United States, while the same percentage went to the European Union countries, mostly to Germany and the United Kingdom.

Among the rubber products, gloves have been the main export product to these countries and would continue to be the major contributor (of about 80 percent) to the sector’s exports earnings. On prices, Salmiah said after reaching its peak at 1,734 sen per kg on February 18, 2011, the natural rubber (NR) market was on a slow patch and prices were on the declining trend amid a lull in global demand, particularly in advanced countries.

However, she noted that prices would be better next year compared with the current year, as China’s consumption of NR was projected to grow by some 6.5 percent in tandem with its economic growth of about 7.5 percent. “China consumed approximately 35 percent of the total global NR consumption. “Another plus factor is that the economic growth in advanced western countries, particularly Eurozone, are expected to register positive growth in 2014, potentially signalling better demand for the automobile and transportation industries,” she said.

On the sector’s sustainability, Salmiah said a total of 11,600 hectares (ha) of new areas will be planted with rubber next year. “In 2013, the total target for new planting is 10,615 hectares, out of which 3,000 hectares in the peninsula are implemented by the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority, 3,215 hectares in Sabah by the Sabah Rubber Industry Board, and 4,400 hectares by the Department of Agriculture Sarawak. “For the January to October period, 4,018 hectares have been planted, 3,940 hectares are under work in progress, while the balance of 2,656 hectares have yet to be planted,” she said. For the first nine months of 2013, the volume of rubber glove exports grew 32.4 percent year-on-year to 533,352 metric tons from 402,887 metric tons in the same period in 2012. The value of the rubber glove exports for the January to September period in 2013 amounted to RM 7.93 billion, up 0.5 percent year-on-year. The small increase was due to the lower average selling prices of rubber gloves and the fall in raw material prices.

Source: rubberworld.com