aseansources.com - Malaysia External Trade Statistics APRIL 2007

Malaysia External Trade Statistics APRIL 2007

Balance of Trade
1.In the first four months of 2007, Malaysia’s external trade balance recorded a surplus of RM27.1 billion as against RM32.4 billion in the same period a year earlier. Exports recorded a growth of 1.0% from RM182.4 billion to RM184.2 billion while imports moved up by 4.8% from RM150.0 billion to RM157.2 billion in the corresponding period of 2006.

Export
2. Electrical & electronic products, valued at RM81.8 billion, remained as Malaysia’s largest export revenue earner and accounted for 44.4% of total exports during the period January-April 2007. Export revenue from this category of products decreased by 5.5% or RM4.7 billion. The major component, electronic integrated circuits, which constituted 28.2% of total exports of electrical & electronic products increased by 4.6% or RM1.0 billion to RM23.1 billion. 3. Palm oil & palm oil-based products, with a total combined value of RM11.2 billion or 6.1% of total exports, retained its position as the second largest export revenue earner. Exports of palm oil, the major commodity (68.6%) in this group of products, posted a positive growth of 22.2% to RM7.7 billion. 4. Crude petroleum, the third largest commodity which accounted for 5.0% of total exports, recorded a drop of RM1.5 billion or 13.9% to RM9.3 billion. This was attributed to a decrease in average unit value of 12.0% or RM225.2 per tonne and a lower export volume of 2.1% or 123,000 tonnes. 5. Liquefied natural gas (LNG), the fourth largest export commodity, at RM8.6 billion or 4.7% of total exports, posted an increase of 8.0% or RM634.7 million. The increase was the result of firmer average f.o.b. unit value during the current period (+2.1% or +RM21.6 per tonne) and a higher export volume of 5.8% or 444,000 tonnes. 6. Timber & timber-based products, the fifth largest export earner which contributed 4.1% of total exports, registered an increase of RM659.6 million or 9.5% to RM7.6 billion. The sixth largest export commodity, petroleum products which accounted for 2.9% of total exports, dropped 14.2% to RM5.3 billion.

Import
7. The composition of imports by end-use for the three major categories of imports were as follows: -

a. intermediate goods -	RM111.7 billion (71.1% of total imports); the main component being parts and accessories of capital goods (excluding transport equipment) amounted to RM55.3 billion or 49.5% of intermediate goods,
b. capital goods -	RM20.6 billion (13.1% of total imports), and
c. consumption goods -	RM9.4 billion (6.0% of total imports).

8. Comparatively, the above items recorded the following changes in value over the same period in 2006 as shown below:-

a. intermediate goods -	+RM8.3 billion (+8.0%),
b. capital goods -	-RM0.5 billion (-2.5%), and
c. consumption goods -	+RM0.8 billion (+9.2 %).

Direction of Trade
9. Malaysia’s top five trading partners were the United States of America, the Republic of Singapore, the European Union, Japan and the People’s Republic of China. These countries contributed 60.8% to Malaysia’s total trade during January - April 2007.

Note *It should be duly noted that, conceptually, the export and import figures in the external trade statistics are different from that in the goods account of the balance of payments compilation. @ The April 2007 data is not fully validated; the validated data would be updated in the cumulative data columns of the May 2007 publication. source : http://www.statistics.gov.my