THE Malaysian rubber industry extended its exceptional performance with exports growing by 150% to RM44.43 bil in 1H 2021 from RM17.77 bil in the corresponding period of 2020.
Latex goods such as rubber gloves, latex threads, and condoms recorded an increase of 200.1% attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest statistics released by the Malaysian Rubber Council (MRC).
In 1H 2021, latex goods accounted for 93.9% of the exports of rubber products while dry rubber products accounted for the remaining 6.1%.
Gloves products remained the largest export income churner for the rubber industry. Comprising mainly medical gloves, the gloves subsector expanded by more than three-folds or by 210.2% to RM36.54 bil in 1H 2021.
As such, MRC estimates the global demand for rubber gloves in volume terms to maintain a double-digit growth of between 12% and 15% in 2021.
The global per capita consumption of rubber gloves is expected to increase to 25 pairs in 2021 driven by higher usage of gloves in major Malaysia’s export markets such as the US and Europe as well as large emerging markets particularly in the Asian region.
“The country’s rubber glove industry will maintain its positive momentum with exports expected to reach a new high for the full year of 2021,” projected MRC’s CEO Nurul Islam Mohamed Yusoff.
Elsewhere, the dry rubber products sector has also rebounded with an outstanding growth of 38.2% to RM2.41 bil in 1H 2021 from RM1.75 bil in 1H 2020. The dry rubber products sector includes tyres, industrial rubber goods, general rubber goods, and footwear.
Tyres, the largest exports within the dry rubber products, rose by 43.2% year-on-year (yoy) to RM840 mil in 1H 2021 (1H 2020: RM580 mil).
Meanwhile, total exports of industrial rubber goods which comprise products for the automotive, mining and construction sectors improved by 44.2% to RM610 mil during 1H 2021.
Recently, MRC has initiated the Malaysian Rubber Products Virtual Showcase (MaRViS) to further facilitate online business engagements between international buyers and Malaysian rubber product manufacturers.
By utilising MaRViS, international buyers will be able to obtain more information on key rubber products that are produced by Malaysian manufacturers, ie precured treads, engineered rubber products for construction, railway, mining and marine, latex foam and mattresses, rubber medical devices (medical gloves, condoms and rubber catheters), rubber gloves, rubber automotive components and green rubber.
The first phase of MaRViS is anticipated to go live in September 2021 while the official launch of the online platform is expected to take place in January 2022. – Aug 11, 2021
