JANUARY – JUNE 2002

Sabah’s trade surplus for the first half of 2002 amounted to RM1,392.9 million an increase of RM 295.4 million or 26.9% over the RM1,097.5 million for the same period last year. The higher surplus was attributed to the 8.0% rise in exports as compared to 4.1% in the case of imports between the two periods under review.

2. Exports

Sabah registered total exports of RM6,935.9 million in the first six months of 2002, an increase of RM514.5 million or 8.0% over the corresponding exports of RM6,421.4 million last year. This increase was mainly due to the higher receipts of palm oil by RM702.1 million. Sabah’s major export commodities were palm oil, crude petroleum, plywood, sawn timber, palm kernel oil, uncoated printing and writing paper and hot briquetted iron which together accounted for RM5.098.0 million or 73.5% of total exports.

Palm oil remained as the leading revenue earner of Sabah generating RM2,288.2 million or 33.0% of Sabah’s total export during the first half of 2002, an increase of RM702.1 million over the RM1,586.0 million recorded for the same period last year. The increased receipts was from the better f.o.b export price which rose by RM389.0 or 49.5% per tonne to RM1,174.1 per tonne. However, the export volume dropped by 71.3 thousand tonnes ro 1,948.8 thousand tonnes. The main buyers of Sabah’s palm oil were the Republic of China (560.3 thousand tonnes), India (334.0 thousand tonnes), Netherlands (262.0 thousand tonnes) and Pakistan ( 215.0 thousand tonnes).

Exports of Crude petroleum continued it’s downward trend with receipts of RM1,474.4 million, a drop of RM255.3 million from RM1,729.7 million during the review periods. The decline was due to the lower f.o.b export price from RM774.7 per tonne to RM608.7 per tonne (-RM165.7 per tonne) although the export volume increased by 188 thousand tonnes. India, the Republic of Korea, Peninsular Malaysia and the Republic of Indonesia together consumed 93.4% of Sabah’s total exports of crude petroleum during the current period.

Exports revenue from plywood decreased by RM69.6 million from RM585.1 million to RM515.5 million during the periods under review. The drop in f.o.b export price of RM96.3 per cubic metre coupled with the lower export volume by 17.8 thousand cubic metres was the main factor for the decrease in receipts. The main importers of Sabah’s plywood were Japan (226.3 thousand cubic metres), the Republic of Korea (92.6 thousand cubic metres), the U.S.A (77.9 thousand cubic metres) and Peninsular Malaysia (63.3 thousand cubic metres).

For the first half of 2002 Sabah’s imports amounted to RM5,543.0 million an increase of RM219.1 million or 4.1% against RM5,323.9 million recorded for the same period last year. Machinery and transport equipment, manufactures goods and chemicals and related products together accounted for 59.4% or RM 3,297.4 million of total imports.

Sabah imported RM1,822.1 million worth of machinery and transport equipment during January- June, 2002. These consists mainly of road vehicles (RM678.6 million), machinery for particular industries (RM291.6 million), general industrial machinery and equipment (RM270.6 million) and electrical machinery and appliances n.e.s (RM194.6 million). The main suppliers of these commodities to Sabah were Peninsular Malaysia (RM1,163.8 million), the U.S.A (RM279.0 million),Japan (RM125.8 million) and the European Union ( RM121.2 million)

Imports of manufactured goods amounted to RM822.5 million or 14.8% of total imports during the first six months of 2002. Iron and steel (RM261.3 million), manufactures of metal n.e.s ( RM188.3 million), non- metallic mineral manufactures n.e.s ( RM114.3 million ) and rubber manufactures n.e.s (RM95.1 million) were the main component items imported. Peninsular Malaysia supplies about 61.2% or RM503.0 million of total imports of manufactured goods into Sabah.

For the first six months of 2002 Sabah’s import bill for chemicals and related products amounted to RM652.8 million or 11.8% of total imports. Fertilizers, manufactured (RM181.6 million),other chemicals and products (RM108.7 million) and essential oils, perfumery,etc. (RM95.5 million) were the major imported items. More than half or 52.7% worth RM343.9 million of chemicals and related products comes from Peninsular Malaysia.

4. Direction of Trade

Sabah’s major trading partners during the first half of 2002 were Peninsular Malaysia, ASEAN, the People’s Republic of China, India, the European Union, Sarawak, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the U.S.A and Taiwan in that order of importance.

Department of Statistics Malaysia,

(Sabah Branch), Kota Kinabalu

9 August 2002.