KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 ― Malaysia’s trade performance continued its upward trajectory in March 2021, registering the highest monthly value for trade, exports, and imports.
Senior Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, who is also the International Trade and Industry Minister, said total trade expanded by 25.6 per cent to RM185.74 billion compared with March 2020.
“Exports accelerated by 31 per cent, surpassing the RM100 billion mark to reach RM104.95 billion. Imports increased by 19.2 per cent to RM80.79 billion and trade surplus surged by 96.1 per cent to RM24.15 billion.
“(Hence) trade, exports, imports, and trade surplus recorded double-digit growth for two consecutive months,” he said in a statement on the country’s external trade performance for March 2021.
For the first quarter (Q1) of 2021, total trade grew 14.8 per cent to RM505.65 billion compared with the corresponding period last year.
Exports increased by 18.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM282.14 billion and imports rose by 10.8 per cent to RM223.51 billion. Trade surplus expanded by 58.6 per cent y-o-y to RM58.63 billion in Q1 2021.
Mohamed Azmin said exports in March were boosted by higher global demand notably for electrical and electronic (E&E) products mainly semiconductors used in 5G technology and high-performance computing as well as rubber products.
Exports to major markets, namely ASEAN, China, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU), registered a new all-time high.
Compared with February 2021, total trade, exports, imports and trade surplus grew by 18.1 per cent, 19.8 per cent, 15.9 per cent and 35.1 per cent, respectively.
Comparing Q1 2021 with Q4 2020, total trade, exports and imports recorded an increase of 4.7 per cent, 3.9 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively. Trade surplus declined by 2.1 per cent.
On export performance of major sectors, Mohamed Azmin said manufactured goods in March 2021 reached its highest monthly value at RM91.21 billion or 86.9 per cent of total exports, growing by 34.9 per cent y-o-y.
“The expansion was due mainly to higher shipments of E&E products, rubber products, manufactures of metal, chemicals and chemical products as well as machinery, equipment and parts.
“These products recorded the highest export value thus far,” the minister said.
Exports of agriculture goods (7.1 per cent share) surged by 43.8 per cent to RM7.48 billion compared with March 2020, buoyed mainly by higher exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.
However, exports of mining goods (5.0 per cent share) declined by 24.1 per cent y-o-y to RM5.23 billion on account of lower exports of liquefied natural gas, crude petroleum as well as metalliferous ores and metal scrap.
In March 2021, E&E products were the major exports. They were valued at RM39.54 billion, up 47.1 per cent from a year earlier, and constituted 37.7 per cent of total exports.
Rubber products came second with a value of RM7.32 billion (7.0 per cent of total exports), surging by 210.6 per cent y-o-y.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, exports of manufactured, agriculture and mining goods expanded by 20.2 per cent, 31.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
On import performance, Mohamed Azmin said total imports grew 19.2 per cent y-o-y to RM80.79 billion in March 2021.
The three main categories of imports by end use, which accounted for 73.1 per cent of total imports, were intermediate goods (RM43.65 billion or 54 per cent of total imports), capital goods (RM8.32 billion or 10.3 per cent) and consumption goods (RM7.12 billion or 8.8 per cent).
Imports of intermediate goods grew by 4.6 per cent to RM121.38 billion, capital goods (RM23.15 billion, up 32.7 per cent) and consumption goods (RM19.56 billion, up 10.1 per cent).
For more information visit MITI's website and Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation’s (Matrade) portal.
Matrade noted that this was a preliminary release and full details would be published by the Statistics Department in its monthly external trade statistics report, to be disseminated on May 4, 2021. ― Bernama
