By AFIQ AZIZ / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL
THE value of completed construction work in 2020 contracted by 19.4% to RM117.9 billion last year, compared to RM146.4 billion a year earlier due to the Movement Control Order impact.
In the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DoSM) quarterly construction statistics for fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20) released yesterday, all subsectors contributed to the decline.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the civil engineering subsector decreased by 24%, followed residential buildings (17.2%) and non-residential buildings (17.1%), while the special trades activities subsector contributed -2.1% to the overall rate.
For the 4Q20, the construction sector managed to narrow the deficit value, said Mohd Uzir.
“The value of construction work done in the 4Q20 contracted by 14.2% compared to 3Q20 which is 13.1% year-on-year (YoY) basis.
“The value done for 4Q20 was RM31.7 billion, while in 3Q20 it was RM31.4 billion.
“The special trades activities sub-sector soared higher at 29.3% in the last of 2020, while the other three subsectors — civil engineering, residential buildings and non-residential buildings fell by 25%, 10.9% and 6.3% respectively,” he said in the statement.
Meanwhile, the private sector continued to push the construction activity with 55.7% share or RM17.7 billion of the total value of construction work done, compared to the public sector with 44.3% share or RM14 billion.
In a separate statement, DoSM announced that the production of natural rubber increased 17.1% in December 2020 to 49,825 tonnes compared to 42,554 tonnes in the previous month.
However, Malaysia produced 14.7% YoY less of natural rubber in December 2020, compared to the same month reported last year.
The department said the coun- try’s natural rubber production stood at 48,825 tonnes in December 2020, compared to 58,437 YoY.
The stocks of natural rubber also decreased in December 2020 to 249,555 tonnes compared to 259,443 tonnes in November 2020 with a decrease of 3.8%, supported by the encouraging export market.
“Exports of Malaysia’s natural rubber amounted 61,547 tonnes in December 2020, an increase of 8.9% against 56,522 tonnes in November 2020.
“China remains as the main destination for natural rubber exports with 53.8% of total exports in December 2020, followed by Germany (10.2%), the US (5.4%), Taiwan (2.7%) and Iran (2.5%),” Mohd Uzir said.
He added that rubber gloves were the main export item with export value RM4.5 billion in November 2020, an increase of 3.6% to RM4.6 billion in December 2020.
The US, China and Germany were among the highest importers of rubber gloves.
Average price of latex concentrate recorded a decrease of 582.79 sen per kg compared to 620.76 sen per kg in November.
“Standard Malaysian Rubber 20 also decreased to 628.74 sen per kg compared to 632.74 sen per kg for the same period,” Mohd Uzir said.
He added that the domestic consumption of natural rubber in December 2020 was 42,356 tonnes, a decrease of 4.5% compared to the previous month.
“Rubber gloves industry continues to dominate the use of natural rubber with 31,498 tonnes or 74.4% of the total domestic consumption,” he said.
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