Côte d'Ivoire's Share of Malaysia's Rubber Imports Fell From 38% to 15% Since 2023

Côte d'Ivoire supplied 14.9% of Malaysia's natural rubber imports in January-July 2026, down from 37.8% in full-year 2023, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). In tonnage terms, Malaysia bought 77,617 tonnes of Ivorian rubber in the first seven months of 2026, against 153,800 tonnes in the same period of 2025, a fall of 49.5%, while its total imports slipped only 3.7%.

The shift matters beyond Malaysia. Malaysian processors import about 2.6 tonnes of rubber for every tonne tapped at home, then re-export much of it as Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) to tire plants in China, Germany and the United States. West Africa's push to process its own latex and cup lump, which now includes export bans in Ghana (April 2026) and Liberia (July 2026), is draining a feedstock channel that supplied Malaysian mills with more than a third of their imports in 2023 and 2024.

Ivorian rubber shipments to Malaysia halved in the first seven months of 2026

DOSM's import table by country of origin shows a four-year arc. Malaysian imports from Côte d'Ivoire rose from 321,930 tonnes in 2022 to a peak of 378,686 tonnes in 2023, held at 356,673 tonnes in 2024, then dropped 32.9% to 239,211 tonnes in 2025. The 2026 run rate is lower again: 77,617 tonnes in seven months, with only 4,423 tonnes in June and 7,146 tonnes in July.

Other origins filled most of the gap. Imports from Liberia rose 96.3% to 54,634 tonnes, Myanmar added 26.2% to 61,502 tonnes and Viet Nam grew 34.8% to 26,954 tonnes. Thailand, still the largest supplier, was flat at 167,504 tonnes, which lifted its share from 30.4% to 32.2%. The net effect was a modest decline in total imports, from 540,224 tonnes to 520,272 tonnes.

Origin	2022 (t)	2023 (t)	2024 (t)	2025 (t)	Jan-Jul 2025 (t)	Jan-Jul 2026 (t)	Change Jan-Jul
Thailand	514,515	370,543	340,231	289,444	164,464	167,504	+1.8%
Côte d'Ivoire	321,930	378,686	356,673	239,211	153,800	77,617	-49.5%
Myanmar	79,779	34,313	87,642	60,947	48,735	61,502	+26.2%
Liberia	33,850	17,251	22,253	46,021	27,837	54,634	+96.3%
Philippines	145,090	78,452	80,468	85,917	51,006	53,453	+4.8%
Ghana	26,961	40,690	59,401	49,945	36,859	38,891	+5.5%
Viet Nam	10,258	9,392	29,061	39,448	19,999	26,954	+34.8%
All origins	1,164,883	1,002,934	1,031,725	870,160	540,224	520,272	-3.7%

Table 1: Malaysia's natural rubber imports by origin, tonnes dry rubber content. Source: DOSM, Monthly Rubber Statistics Malaysia, July 2026, Table 7. Percentage changes calculated by Radial Insights.

Malaysia's rubber trade runs on imports at 2.6 times domestic output

Malaysia is no longer a rubber producer in the sense that Thailand or Côte d'Ivoire are. DOSM's supply and demand balance puts 2025 production at 336,676 tonnes, of which smallholders tapped 291,921 tonnes. Imports in the same year were 870,170 tonnes, exports 485,429 tonnes and domestic consumption 269,006 tonnes. The import-to-production ratio has eased from 3.1 in 2022 to 2.6 in 2025, but only because imports fell faster than output.

Domestic supply is also weakening. Production in January-July 2026 was 163,096 tonnes, down 18.2% from 199,497 tonnes a year earlier, and July alone was 25.3% below July 2025. Closing stocks stood at 128,946 tonnes in July 2026, 24.7% lower than the 171,153 tonnes held in July 2025. At the end of 2025 stocks were 121,686 tonnes, 39.6% below the 201,360 tonnes recorded at the end of 2022.

Year	Production (t)	Imports (t)	Exports (t)	Domestic consumption (t)	Closing stocks (t)	Imports / production
2022	377,047	1,164,883	621,324	426,594	201,360	3.1x
2023	347,856	1,002,934	578,683	310,398	191,304	2.9x
2024	386,512	1,031,725	577,213	270,514	167,801	2.7x
2025	336,676	870,170	485,429	269,006	121,686	2.6x

Table 2: Malaysia's natural rubber balance, tonnes dry rubber content. Source: DOSM, Monthly Rubber Statistics Malaysia, July 2026, Table 1. Ratios calculated by Radial Insights.

The import basket is weighted toward low-grade feedstock. In October 2025, scrap made up 28,104 tonnes, or 41.1%, of Malaysia's 68,318 tonnes of imports, and standard rubber another 19,047 tonnes. Scrap and cup lump are exactly the forms West African governments now want processed at home.

Ivorian processing rules, not prices, line up with the decline

Price does not explain the drop. The World Bank TSR 20 benchmark cited by DOSM rose from USD 1.74/kg in December 2025 to USD 2.14/kg in July 2026, a 23.0% increase that should have pulled more rubber toward buyers, not less. The better fit is policy in Côte d'Ivoire.

The country's regulator, the Conseil Hévéa-Palmier à huile, banned exports of cup lump (fonds de tasse) in November 2023, according to the Ivorian economy ministry's Direction Générale de l'Economie. Exporters said in May 2024 that they had received no export licences for that year. Since 2021 the government has targeted local primary processing of all its natural rubber, and in June 2025 the regulator stopped granting new primary processing licences, citing saturation. By 2025, about 98% of Côte d'Ivoire's 1.97 million tonnes of rubber exports left as technically specified natural rubber (TSNR), based on Trade Map data reported by Agence Ecofin.

The DOSM series is consistent with a lagged effect: Malaysian imports from Côte d'Ivoire barely moved in 2024 (down 5.8%), possibly as stocks and existing contracts ran down, then fell 32.9% in 2025 and another 49.5% year on year in early 2026. Ivorian TSNR still reaches Malaysia, but a larger share of it can now go straight to tire makers in China and elsewhere without passing through a Malaysian mill.

Ghana and Liberia have now closed the remaining raw-rubber channel

Ghana's trade minister, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, signed a directive on 27 April 2026 that bans raw natural rubber exports for ten years, following a Cabinet decision of 11 November 2025. Liberia followed with an executive order from President Joseph Boakai that prohibits exports of latex, coagulum, cup lump, tree lace, bark scrap and ground scrap from 1 July 2026 for an indefinite period. Processed grades, including TSR, ribbed smoked sheets and latex concentrate, remain exportable from both countries, and Liberia's order sets fines of up to USD 100,000 for corporations.

Malaysia was a major outlet for both countries. In 2025 it imported 49,945 tonnes from Ghana and 46,021 tonnes from Liberia. Liberian volumes then surged to 54,634 tonnes in the first seven months of 2026, the pattern one would expect from shippers clearing raw stock ahead of a deadline. Monthly Liberian volumes eased from 10,364 tonnes in May to 7,310 tonnes in June and 6,834 tonnes in July, the first month under the ban. DOSM does not split imports by origin and grade in its summary tables, so the August and September releases will be the first real test of how much Liberian supply was raw material that can no longer move.

Taken together, the six West African origins in DOSM's table (Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Cameroon and Nigeria) supplied 45.1% of Malaysia's imports in 2023 but 35.6% in January-July 2026.

Gloves absorb most of Malaysia's own rubber, while exports to Germany have more than doubled

Inside Malaysia, the rubber that is not re-exported goes mainly into gloves. Glove makers used 171,439 tonnes in 2025, 63.7% of domestic consumption, and their intake rose 9.8% in January-July 2026 to 96,809 tonnes. Tire and tube makers used 23,442 tonnes in 2025, 8.7% of the total, and their intake fell 4.9% in the first seven months of 2026 to 12,773 tonnes.

The export side is where tire makers feel Malaysia's feedstock squeeze. China took 218,557 tonnes of Malaysian natural rubber in 2025, 45.0% of the total, but that was 23.5% less than in 2022. Germany moved the other way, taking 62,320 tonnes in 2025, up 136.8% from 26,314 tonnes in 2022. Total Malaysian exports in January-July 2026 were 255,584 tonnes, 12.0% below the same period of 2025.

What the shift means for tire makers, rubber buyers and investors

• Tire makers buying SMR: Malaysian export volumes depend on imported feedstock that is being redirected. Buyers in Europe, where Germany has become Malaysia's second-largest outlet, should treat SMR availability as linked to West African policy and test Ivorian TSNR as a direct substitute with their own compound approvals.
• Raw-material procurement teams: Côte d'Ivoire is now a TSNR origin, not a cup lump origin. Contracts priced off SGX TSR 20 and shipped from Abidjan or San Pedro skip one processing margin, but they also put traceability and EU deforestation compliance work on the buyer rather than on a Malaysian intermediary.
• Malaysian processors and their lenders: With stocks down 24.7% year on year and the largest West African raw channels shut by law, mills that depended on imported scrap face lower utilization. Apart from Liberia's pre-ban surge, Myanmar and Viet Nam are the only large origins that grew materially in 2026.
• Glove and latex product makers: Glove intake rose 9.8% while total imports fell 3.7%, which leaves less imported rubber available for re-export and other domestic uses.
• Investors: Value capture is moving to West African primary processing. Ghana and Liberia now need the processing capacity that Côte d'Ivoire built over the past five years, which creates demand for TSR lines, while asset-light rubber traders that relied on raw flows face a smaller addressable market.

For broader context on supply and pricing, see Radial's natural rubber market coverage. Buyers weighing substitution options can compare it with the synthetic polyisoprene rubber market, the closest synthetic analogue to natural rubber, and retreaders, whose tread compounds are rich in natural rubber, can check the precured tread rubber market.

Methodology and sources

All Malaysian volumes are in tonnes of dry rubber content as published by DOSM. Shares, ratios and percentage changes were calculated by Radial Insights from the published tonnages. January-July comparisons use DOSM's cumulative columns; 2026 figures are preliminary and may be revised. Policy dates come from official government statements where available, with reputable news reports used for figures that governments did not publish directly.

• DOSM, Monthly Rubber Statistics Malaysia, July 2026 (published September 2026): imports by origin 2022-2025 and January-July 2025/2026 (Table 7), supply and demand balance (Table 1), exports by destination (Table 4), consumption by industry (Table 10).
• DOSM, Monthly Rubber Statistics release, July 2026 (10 September 2026): July production, stocks, exports and World Bank TSR 20 price.
• DOSM, Monthly Rubber Statistics Malaysia, October 2025: imports by type (scrap and standard rubber).
• DOSM, media statement for December 2025 (12 February 2026): December 2025 TSR 20 price.
• Direction Générale de l'Economie, Côte d'Ivoire (June 2024): November 2023 ban on raw natural rubber exports and the local processing target.
• Information Services Department, Government of Ghana: the trade minister's reaffirmation of the raw rubber export ban.
• Executive Mansion, Republic of Liberia (via APO): scope, effective date and penalties of the executive order.
• Graphic Online, 14 May 2026: 27 April 2026 signing date, ten-year duration and Cabinet decision date of Ghana's ban.
• Agence Ecofin, 7 July 2026: Côte d'Ivoire's 2025 exports and TSNR share (Trade Map data) and the June 2025 suspension of new processing licences.
• Fraternité Matin, 26 May 2024: exporters' account of the 2024 halt to cup lump export licences.