Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, but the rally may lose steam due to concerns about rising stockpiles, traders said.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's exports stayed above the RM80bil mark in August though there was a dip due to a decline in palm oil exports. Imports rose to a new high on higher purchases of iron and steel.
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced on Friday exports of manufactured goods were higher due to higher exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products,mining goods but agriculture goods declined due to a fall in palm oil.
“Exports in August 2018 remained above RM80bil mark, totalling RM81.81bil, a marginal contraction of 0.3% from RM82.02bil recorded in the same month last year,” it said. In July, exports were at RM86.15bil – the highest for 2018.
The contraction was a sharp contrast with a Bloomberg survey of a 8% increase. To recap, in July, Malaysia's exports were at a year high of RM86.15bil.
MITI said Malaysia’s August imports recorded a new high of RM80.2bil, increasing by 11.2% on-year. This exceeded a forecast of a 9.4% increase.
“This (increase in imports) resulted in a 83.7% contraction in trade surplus to RM1.61bil,” it said.
Exports
MITI said exports of manufactured goods (83.7% of Malaysia’s total exports) rose by 1.8% on-year to RM68.5bil in August 2018.
The expansion was driven mainly by higher exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products, chemicals and chemical products, iron and steel products as well as optical and scientific equipment.
E&E products valued at RM32.04bil (39.2% of total exports) increased by 3.2% from August 2017.
Exports of mining goods (9.1% of Malaysia’s total exports), rose by 5.5% to RM7.47bil. Higher exports were recorded for crude petroleum which increased by 64.9% or RM1.3bil, due to higher average unit value (AUV) and export volume.
However, MITI said exports of agriculture goods (6.5% of total exports) contracted by 20.8% to RM5.3bil.
“This was due to lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, particularly palm oil, which decreased by 26.8% or RM1.02bil. This was on account of lower export volume and AUV for palm oil,” it said.
Palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, RM3.31 billion, 4% of total exports, decreased by 27%.
MITI said petroleum products exports were down by 3.3% to RM5.07bil. These products account for 6.2% of total exports.
However, chemicals and chemical products increased by 22.6% to RM4.99bil.
On Malaysia’s trade with the US, it grew by 4.6% to RM13.9 billion or accounted for 8.6% of Malaysia’s total trade.
However, exports to the US, fell by 2% to RM7.79bil. This was due to lower exports of E&E products, palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products as well as transport equipment.
Exports to China expanded by 4.5% to RM11.83bil due to higher exports of chemicals and chemical products, LNG, E&E products, crude petroleum and optical and scientific equipment.
Imports
MITI said the three main categories of imports by end use which accounted for 79.5% of total imports were intermediate goods, capital goods and consumption goods.
There was a 4.3% increase in intermediate goods, valued at RM44.97 billion (56.1% of total imports), due to higher imports of processed industrial supplies, particularly iron and steel;
Capital goods rose by 25.3% to RM11.65bil (14.5% of total imports) led by higher imports of industrial transport equipment, particularly ships, boats and floating structure.
Consumption goods reported a 14.2% increase to RM7.12bil (8.9% of total imports), mainly due to higher imports of durable goods, particularly machinery, mechanical appliances and parts.
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