Malaysia's February exports jump 26.5% as China imports grow

March exports surges past RM80b for first time

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's exports in February jumped 26.5% to RM71.77bil – the fourth consecutive month where the exports exceeded RM70bil – exceeding Bloomberg's survey of 15.1% growth – as demand from China grew at a faster pace.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said on Wednesday the exports were higher than the monthly  average of RM64bil in the Janaury-October of 2016. On a month-on-month basis, exports rose by 2.1%.

Underpinning the export growth were electrical and electronics (E&E) products, valued at RM24.57bil, up 22.4% from February 2016. These exports constituted 34.2% of total exports.

“Exports to China grew by 47.6% to RM9.57bil, due to higher exports of E&E products, petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products, rubber products, liquified natural gas (LNG), as well as palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products,” it said.

MITI said imports in February 2017 grew by 27.7% to RM63.06bil – exceeding the survey of a 19.5% growth.

Trade surplus was RM8.71bil, which was the 232nd consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997. 
 
For January to February,  total trade rose 20.6% to RM270.63bil from RM224.4bil in the corresponding period of 2016. 

“Exports were higher by 19.8% to RM142.04bil while imports increased by 21.5% to RM128.59bil, resulting in trade surplus of RM13.45bil,” it said. 

On a month-on-month basis, exports rose by 2.1%, while imports and total trade posted a decline of 3.8% and 0.7%, respectively. 

Malaysia’s total trade in February 2017 expanded by 27.1%, reaching RM134.83bil from a year ago.  

Expansion in trade were seen with all major trading partners, namely Asean, China, India, Japan, Taiwan, the European Union (EU) and the US. 

Commenting on the February exports, MITI said double digit exports growth was registered for all major sectors, namely manufactured, mining, and agriculture goods. 

Data showed exports of manufactured goods grew by 24.3% to RM57.45bil compared to February 2016, accounting for 80% share of Malaysia’s total exports. 

“The increase was contributed by higher exports of E&E products, petroleum products, chemicals and chemical products as well as rubber products,” it said.
 
Exports of mining goods increased by 21.6% to RM6.83bil due to higher exports of crude petroleum which expanded by 50.4% to RM2.36bil. 

As for agriculture goods, exports surged 50.7% to RM6.78bil, led by palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products. Palm oil exports rose 61.1% to RM3.97bil from RM2.47bil a year ago.

Commenting on February trade with China, MITI said it rose 28.9% to RM19.79bil and this was 14.7% of Malaysia’s total trade. 

“Exports to China grew by 47.6% to RM9.57bil while imports from China amounted to RM10.22bil an increase of 15.3%.,” it said.