Malaysia March rubber output down 7.7pc

Malaysia March rubber output down 7.7pc
THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2011

Natural rubber output fell 29.1 per cent to 64,932 tonnes in March, from 91,580 tonnes registered a month earlier, and dipped 7.7 per cent when compared with 70,318 tonnes produced in the same month last year.
The Statistics Department said stocks declined 18.9 per cent to 154,493 tonnes, at end-March, from 190,565 tonnes, recorded end-February.
Exports surged 59.4 per cent to 111,020 tonnes in March from an offtake of 69,638 tonnes registered in February.
However, natural rubber imports increased 8.8 per cent to 58,833 tonnes compared with 54,083 tonnes imported in the previous month.
Domestic consumption rose 17.4 per cent to 36,161 tonnes in March from 30,810 tonnes recorded in February. -- Bernama
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Monsoon may break over Kerala on May 31: IMD



THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 13:
The south-west monsoon is likely to break over Kerala on May 31 with a model error of four days to either side of the mean, India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced on Friday.

The monsoon normally advances over Andaman Sea around May 20, the IMD said in a special bulletin.

As of now, the monsoon flow is expected to make the onset over Andaman Sea within “the next few days” and is likely to cover the Andaman Sea close to its normal date.

Past data suggest absence of any one to one association between the date of monsoon advance over Andaman Sea and the date of monsoon onset over Kerala.

From 2005 onwards, the IMD has been issuing operational forecasts for the monsoon onset over Kerala using an indigenously developed statistical model with a model error of plus or minus four days.

For predicting the 2011 monsoon onset over Kerala, the model based on ‘principal component regression technique' uses the six predictors of (i) Minimum temperature over northwest India, (ii) pre-monsoon rainfall peak over south peninsula, (iii) outgoing long wave radiation (OLR) over south China Sea, (iv) lower tropospheric zonal wind over southeast Indian ocean, (v) upper tropospheric zonal wind over the east equatorial Indian Ocean, and (vi) OLR over southwest Pacific region.

While the IMD has given out a four-day margin on either side of the May 31 mean for the onset over Kerala, global models seem to suggest that it could happen any time after May 25.

It is more or less likely that it would unfold before May 31 and not after it, making the onset fall within the four-day band ahead of the date set by IMD.

Meanwhile, the 24 hours ending Friday morning saw fairly widespread rainfall being reported from Assam and Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and sub-Himalayan

West Bengal as the pre-monsoon season prospered to the east.

The rains were scattered over western Himalayan region and isolated over Punjab, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Orissa, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and south interior Karnataka. Satellite imagery on Friday afternoon showed the presence of convective (rain-bearing) clouds over Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, north Andaman Sea and southwest Arabian Sea.

A weather warning issued by the IMD said that isolated thunder squalls would occur over Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim and the Northeastern States until Monday.

Isolated dust storms or thunderstorms accompanied with squall would occur over Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh until Sunday.

An extended outlook valid until Wednesday said that fairly widespread rain or thundershowers would occur over the Northeastern States and scattered over adjoining east India, Kerala and Lakshadweep.






Natural rubber output up 6% in April


Natural rubber production in April increased by more than six per cent to 56,800 tonnes while consumption also rose by more than five per cent to 82,500 tonnes, according to the latest Rubber Board data.

The country’s natural rubber production and consumption in the year-ago period stood at 53,500 tonnes and 78,250 tonnes, respectively, the data said.

Demand for natural rubber on a month-on-month basis rose 1.22 per cent in April to 82,500 tonnes compared with 81,500 tonnes. However, the exports projected a dismal picture.

Outbound shipments of the commodity declined by 53.16 per cent to 1,043 tonnes compared with 2,227 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year, the Rubber Data said.

Similarly, import of natural rubber during the period under review declined by more than 92 per cent to 843 tonnes from 10,876 tonnes in the year-ago period, it added.

Natural rubber stocks also rose by almost 28 per cent to 2,50,250 tonnes from 1,96,015 tonnes.

Keywords: natural rubber, production, consumption, Rubber Board data