MALAYSIA’s trade continued its stellar performance and maintained an upward trajectory in November 2022 with trade expanding by 15.6% to RM238.17 billion compared to November 2021 – the 22nd consecutive month of year-on-year (y-o-y) double-digit expansion.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) said in a statement today that exports rose by 15.6% to RM130.24 billion, while imports and trade surplus increased by 15.6% each to RM107.93 billion and RM22.3 billion respectively.

“The export expansion was underpinned by strong exports of electrical and electronic (E&E) products, liquefied natural gas (LNG), petroleum products as well as crude petroleum,” it said in a statement today.

Exports to major trading partners notably Asean, the United States (US), the European Union (EU) and Japan recorded double-digit growth.

Compared to October 2022, trade surplus rose by 23.5% while trade, exports and imports contracted by 2.8%, one per cent and 4.9%, respectively.

For the period of January to November 2022, trade expanded by 29.9% to RM2.613 trillion compared to the same period last year.

Exports increased by 27.2% to RM1.42 trillion.

Imports rose by 33.3% to RM1.193 trillion and trade surplus edged up by 2.6 per cent to RM227.89 billion.

“Trade, exports, imports and trade surplus registered the highest value for the period,” it said.

In November 2022, exports of manufactured goods which accounted for 84.6% of total exports grew by 15% y-o-y to RM110.23 billion and was the 16th straight month of double-digit expansion.

The growth was underpinned by E&E products and petroleum products, which respectively posted more than RM1 billion increase in exports.

Exports of mining goods (eight per cent share) soared by 62.6% y-o-y to RM10.43 billion, the 20th successive month of double-digit growth led by higher exports of LNG and crude petroleum.

Exports of agriculture goods (6.8% share) declined by 11.1% to RM8.87 billion compared to November 2021 due to lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.

For the period of January to November 2022, almost all products recorded export growth.

Exports of manufactured goods grew by 24.3% to RM1.197 trillion compared to the same period last year.

This was attributed to higher exports of E&E products, petroleum products, machinery, equipment and parts, chemicals and chemical products as well as palm oil based manufactured products.

In November 2022, trade with Asean contributed 26.6% to Malaysia’s total trade, rising by 11.6% y-o-y to RM63.46 billion.

Exports edged up by 16.9% to RM38.69 billion, this was on account of higher exports of E&E products and petroleum products.

Imports from Asean increased by 4.1 per cent to RM24.77 billion.

Exports to Asean major markets that recorded increases were Singapore which grew by RM5.86 billion, bolstered by robust exports of E&E products and Thailand (RM1.06 billion, petroleum products).

Trade with China recorded RM43.18 billion, rose by 13.5% last month, exports recorded 9.2% to RM18.85 billion and imports from China grew by 17.1% to RM24.33 billion.

Trade with US rose by 15.6% y-o-y to RM22.82 billion with exports 11.8% up to RM14.59 billion and imports higher by 23% to RM8.23 billion.

Trade with the EU grew by 12% y-o-y to RM18.66 billion with exports rising by 16.3% to RM10.5 billion aided by strong exports of petroleum products, transport equipment and E&E products.

Imports from the EU expanded by 6.9% to RM8.17 billion. – Bernama, December 19, 2022.