January - February 2002

Sabah continued to register a favourable balance of trade during January – February 2002 with a    surplus amounting to RM285.9 million. This surplus was however lower when compared to         RM425.6 million for the same period last year, a decrease of RM139.7 million or 32.8%. The lower surplus was attributed to the substantial decline in the exports of crude petroleum, methanol and plywood while higher imports were registered in machinery & transport equipment and manufactured goods during the review periods.

2. Exports

Sabah recorded export receipts amounting to RM2,010.3 million during the first two months of this year as against RM2,068.0 million for the same period last year, a decline of RM57.7 million or 2.8%. Sabah’s major export commodities during the current review period were palm oil, crude petroleum, plywood, sawn timber, palm kernel oil, fresh & frozen prawns and uncoated printing & writing paper which together accounted for RM1,450.2 million or 72.1% of total exports.

 

Palm oil was the leading export commodity for Sabah with revenue amounting to RM645.5 million and contributed to almost one-third or 32.1% of total export earnings during the first two months of 2002 as against RM547.9 million of the previous period (+ RM97.6million). The increased receipts were resulted from the better f.o.b export price which increased by 46% from RM773.3 per tonne to RM1,128.7 per tonne while the volume plummeted from 416.2 thousand tonnes to 298.6 thousand tonnes during the review periods. Pakistan (110.0 thousand tonnes), The Republic of China (92.3 thousand tonnes), the Netherlands (75.3 thousand tonnes) and India (70.9 thousand tonnes) were the main buyers during the current review period.

Crude petroleum was the second major revenue earner during the current review period with revenue amounting to RM400.5 million as against RM573.6 million during the review periods. This decline was jointly attributed to the lower volume exported from 385 thousand tonnes to 351 thousand tonnes (-34 thousand tonnes) coupled with the lower f.o.b export price from RM796.0 per tonne to RM530.7 per tonne (-RM265.3 per tonne) during the current review period. Peninsular Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and the Republic of Korea together imported about 92.1% of Sabah’s crude petroleum during the current review period.

Exports receipts from Plywood declined by 15.7% from RM187.2 million to RM157.8 million during the periods under review. The export volume rose by 21.5 thousand cubic metres to 101.8 thousand cubic metres while its f.o.b export price was lowered by RM125.2 per cubic metre to RM982.7 per cubic metre. The main importers for Sabah’s plywood during the current review period were Japan (38.9 thousand cubic metres), Peninsular Malaysia (24.2 thousand cubic metres), the Republic of Korea (22.9 thousand cubic metres) and the U.S.A. (19.4 thousand cubic metres).

Sabah’s imports for the first two months of this year amounted to RM1,724.4 million as against RM1,642.4 million recorded for the same period last year. Machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods and chemicals together amounted to RM843.1 million and accounted for 48.9% of the total imports during first two months of this year.

Machinery and transport equipment tops the list of Sabah’s import bill with value amounting to RM559.9million or 32.5% of total imports. Road vehicles (RM221.5 million), machines for particular industries (RM83.4 million), general industrial machinery and equipment, n.e.s & machine parts n.e.s (RM70.4 million) and electrical machinery & appliances n.e.s. (RM53.5 million) were the main component items imported. Peninsular Malaysia (RM397.0 million), the U.S.A (RM48.2 million), European Union (RM36.6 million) and Japan (RM34.2 million) were the main suppliers of machinery and transport equipment to Sabah.

Imports of manufactured goods valued at RM271.6 million accounts for 15.8% of total imports during January-February, 2002. Iron and steel (RM86.5 million), manufactures of metals n.e.s (RM62.1 million), non-metallic mineral manufactures (RM37.3 million) and rubber manufacture (RM30.9 million) were the main goods imported. Peninsular Malaysia alone supplies about 60% or RM159.1 million of total imports of manufactured goods into Sabah.

The import bill for chemicals and related products during the first two months of 2002 amounted to RM199.9 million or 11.6% of total imports. Fertilizers, manufactured and other chemicals & products were the major items imported which amounted to RM85.0 million. Peninsular Malaysia alone supplied more than half of the chemicals and related products (RM100.6 million) imported into Sabah during the current review period.

4. Direction of Trade

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

Department of Statistics Malaysia,

(Sabah Branch), Kota Kinabalu

10 April 2002.