aseansources.com - Malaysia External Trade Statistics JUNE 2007

Malaysian External Trade Statistics August 2008

MALAYSIA EXTERNAL TRADE STATISTICS AUGUST & JANUARY – AUGUST 2008

1. AUGUST 2008
1. In July 2008, Malaysia’s exports continued to grow which recorded an increase of 25.4% to RM63.4 billion from a year ago. Imports increased by 14.8% to RM48.8 billion compared with the corresponding month of 2007. 2. Malaysia external trade posted a surplus of RM14.5 billion, an increase of 81.9% as compared with RM7.9 billion in the same month of 2007. This was the 129th consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997. 3. Electrical & electronic products, the largest export revenue earner which was valued at RM24.5 billion or 38.7% of total exports, recorded an increase of RM2.6 billion (+11.9%) over the corresponding month last year. Imports of intermediate goods, constituted 72.5% of total imports, posted an increase of 18.6% to RM35.4 billion.

II. JANUARY – JUNE 2008
A. BALANCE OF TRADE 4. For the first seven months of 2008, total exports recorded a double digit growth of 17.0% to RM390.3 billion, while imports increased by 9.3% to RM308.3 billion as compared with RM333.6 billion (export) and RM281.9 billion (import) respectively in 2007. Malaysia’s external trade balance registered a surplus of RM82.0 billion, an increase of RM30.3 billion (+58.7%), as against RM51.7 billion in the same corresponding period of last year. B. EXPORTS 5. Electrical & electronic products, valued at RM149.7 billion, remained as Malaysia’s leading export earner and accounted for 38.4% of total exports during the period January – July 2008. Export revenue from this category of products increased slightly by RM2.6 billion or +1.8% of the total exports during the first seven months of 2008. The major component namely electronic integrated circuits, which accounted 26.4% of total exports of electrical & electronic products decreased by 6.8% to RM39.5 billion. 6. Palm oil & palm oil-based products, the second largest export revenue earner with a total combined value of RM39.0 billion for the period of January – July 2008, contributed 10.1% to total exports. Exports of palm oil, the major commodity in this group of products, posted a growth of 87.1% to RM28.8 billion. This increment was due to higher average unit value, which rose by 47.7% to RM3,144 per tonne and export volume grew by 26.7% to 9.1 million tonnes. 7. Crude petroleum, the third largest commodity which accounted for 6.9% of total exports, surged by RM9.3 billion (+52.9%) to RM27.0 billion during the period under review. This was mainly attributed to increase in average unit value of 49.9% to RM2,678 per tonne and increase in export volume by 2.0% to 10.1 million tonnes. 8. Liquefied natural gas (LNG), which made up 5.0% of total exports, remained as the fourth largest export commodity. Total exports of LNG rose by 30.2% to RM19.6 billion in the first seven months of 2008. This increase was the result of higher average unit value of RM354.3 per tonne (+32.7%) despite a decline in export volume by 1.9% to 13.7 million tonnes. 9. Petroleum products, the fifth largest export commodity (4.6% of total exports), recorded a surge of 75.4% to RM17.9 billion over the same corresponding period last year. 10. Timber & timber-based products, the sixth largest export earner amounted to RM12.9 billion or 3.3% of total exports, declined by RM241.6 million during the same review period of 2007. C. IMPORTS

11. The composition of imports by end-use for the three major categories of imports was as follows: -

a. intermediate goods -	RM223.5 billion (72.5% of total imports); the main component being parts and accessories of capital goods (excluding transport equipment) amounted to RM97.7 billion or 43.7% of intermediate goods,
b. capital goods -	RM41.0 billion (13.3% of total imports), and
c. consumption goods -	RM18.9 billion (6.1% of total imports).

12. Comparatively, the above items recorded the following changes in value over the same period in 2007 as shown below:-

a. intermediate goods -	+RM22.2 bilion (+11.1%),
b. capital goods -	+RM2.9 bilion (+7.7%), dan
c. consumption goods -	+RM2.6 bilion (+16.1%).

D. DIRECTION OF TRADE 13. Malaysia’s top ten trading partners were Singapore, the United States of America, Japan, the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Federal Republic of Germany. These countries accounted for 71.1% of Malaysia’s total trade in the period January - July 2008.

Note : @ The July 2008 data is not fully validated; the validated data would be updated in the cumulative data columns of the August 2008 publication. Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia (http://www.statistics.gov.my/)