diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/async/DefaultEventHandler.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/async/DefaultEventHandler.scala
index c15103253c0..eba375b776f 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/async/DefaultEventHandler.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/producer/async/DefaultEventHandler.scala
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import kafka.message.{NoCompressionCodec, Message, ByteBufferMessageSet}
 import kafka.producer._
 import kafka.serializer.Encoder
 import kafka.utils.{Utils, Logging, SystemTime}
+import scala.util.Random
 import scala.collection.{Seq, Map}
 import scala.collection.mutable.{ArrayBuffer, HashMap, Set}
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic._
@@ -36,7 +37,6 @@ class DefaultEventHandler[K,V](config: ProducerConfig,
   extends EventHandler[K,V] with Logging {
   val isSync = ("sync" == config.producerType)
 
-  val partitionCounter = new AtomicInteger(0)
   val correlationId = new AtomicInteger(0)
   val brokerPartitionInfo = new BrokerPartitionInfo(config, producerPool, topicPartitionInfos)
 
@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ class DefaultEventHandler[K,V](config: ProducerConfig,
             val availablePartitions = topicPartitionList.filter(_.leaderBrokerIdOpt.isDefined)
             if (availablePartitions.isEmpty)
               throw new LeaderNotAvailableException("No leader for any partition in topic " + topic)
-            val index = Utils.abs(partitionCounter.getAndIncrement()) % availablePartitions.size
+            val index = Utils.abs(Random.nextInt) % availablePartitions.size
             val partitionId = availablePartitions(index).partitionId
             sendPartitionPerTopicCache.put(topic, partitionId)
             partitionId