KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Rubber Council (MRC) is exploring new markets in countries such as India, Africa and in Latin America, in addition to US and Europe, on the back of the countries' greater populations and promising commercial prospects.
MRC chief executive officer Nor Hizwan Ahmad said as global populations grew rapidly and healthcare expenditure was indicating an upward trend, these countries would likely become a major force in driving future market expansion.
"The demand is largely driven by the global annual consumption of medical examination and surgical gloves from the healthcare industries, as well as the greater demand of cleanroom gloves from manufacturing industries," he said in a statement.
MRC said the most recent participation was during the Arab Health Exhibition held from January 24-27, 2022, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in which the council had facilitated 98 business matches with prospective buyers with total sales of RM110.5 million.
Hizwan added that retreading materials and rubber automotive components can be promoted to countries where the automotive industry is growing.
"Vietnam and Brazil are among the countries that can adopt our tyre retreading solutions for their commercial vehicles.
"Pakistan is also a market that can be penetrated as their healthcare industry is showing growth, hence, opportunity for us to further promote our rubber medical devices such as medical gloves and foley catheters." said Hizwan.
MRC said the second year of Covid-19 pandemic illustrated improved performance in rubber and rubber product sectors with the total export reached a record high of RM71 billion, up 46.3 per cent from RM48.5 billion in 2020.
In 2021, latex goods contributed 91.8 per cent to the total rubber products exports with rubber gloves remain the leader of the pack, contributing to 88.9 per cent to the total rubber products export at RM54.8 billon, an increase
Under these export markets, the US, Europe, and Japan dominated the consumption market of rubber products, accounting for about 50 per cent, said MRC.
It said last year, the US imported RM22.8 billion worth of Malaysian rubber products, an increase of 76.5 per cent.
Germany imports amounting to RM3.79 billion (57.9 per cent), Japan RM3.2 billion (40.5 per cent), the Netherlands at RM1.76 billion (57 per cent) and Italy at RM1.2 billion (42.2 per cent) as compared to 2020.
Other major countries such as Canada, which showed an increase of 70.1 per cent and Brazil (52.8 per cent) are catching up.