Malaysia's natural rubber production down 2.1 pct in Oct.

Malaysia's production of natural rubber (NR) for October dropped to 109,893 tons by 2.1 percent on a month-on-month basis, the Department of Statistics said Friday.

Compared with the same period last year, the NR production in October, however, recorded an increase of 5.2 percent.

The smallholding sector contributed 95.2 percent of total production while the estate sector contributed the remaining 4.8 percent, the department said in a statement.

For the first ten months this year, total production amounted to 1,075,494 tones.

In October, exports of Malaysian NR reached 82,733 tones, down 15.7 percent and down 19.7 percent on a month-on-month basis and a year-on-year basis respectively.

The main type of rubber exported was the Standard Malaysian Rubber which accounted for 93.1 percent of total exports.

From January to October this year, natural rubber exports were mainly to China, Germany, South Korea, the United States, Iran and France, said the department.

Stocks of NR held as at the end of October 2006 was 213,634 tones, increasing by 3.5 percent compared with the previous month and growing by 17.8 percent over the same period last year.

Source: Xinhua