Brunei’s exports fall by 10.4% in October

Koo Jin Shen 
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 

BRUNEI’S exports declined by 10.4 per cent to $625.8 million on a month-on-month basis owing to sharp decrease in exports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE) said yesterday.

Oil and gas exports, which account for roughly 90 per cent of total exports, decreased 14.5 per cent in October.

LNG exports decreased by 28.1 per cent to $257 million. JPKE said this was due to a decrease in the trade volume of LNG exports from 1,034,047 MMBtu per day to 702,758 MMBtu per day.

LNG’s export price rose from US$ 9.48/MMBtu to $9.88/MMbtu.

Crude oil exports increased by 9.7 per cent to $257.8 million. JPKE attributed this to a higher trade volume from 115.55 kbbl (thousand barrels) per day to 141.48 kbbl per day in October.

JPKE reported declines in exports of chemicals by 31.7 per cent, manufactured goods by 26.7 per cent, food by 16.7 per cent and miscellaneous transactions by 33.3 per cent.

More than 40 per cent of the sultanate’s exports went to Japan. This was followed by exports to Thailand (16 per cent), Malaysia (11.7 per cent) and Kuwait (7.2 per cent).

Brunei’s imports declined by 23 per cent to $342.2 million in October. JPKE said there were decreases in imports of machinery and transport equipment by 56.7 per cent and animal and vegetable oils and fats by 29.4 per cent. JPKE also noted a decrease in import of miscellaneous transactions by 58.8 per cent.

Over 20 per cent of Brunei’s imports came from Malaysia. This was followed by Singapore (20 per cent), China (13.7 per cent) and USA (7.8 per cent).

The total trade for the month of October comprising of both imports and exports was reported at $968 million, or 15.3 per cent lower than the previous month.

JPKE reports a positive trade balance of 283.6 million, an increase of 11.8 per cent in October compared to the month before.

On a year to date basis (January to October), total trade decreased by 27.7 per cent and trade balance decreased by 50.9 per cent, compared to this period last year.

On a year on year basis, merchandise exports declined by 31.3 per cent from $911.3 million to $625.8 million in October 2015. JPKE said this was due to decline in the exports of beverage and tobacco (75 per cent), food (54.5 per cent), chemicals (36.1 per cent) and mineral fuels (33.7 per cent).

By country of destination, the highest share of exports in October 2015 went to Japan, accounting for 40.5 per cent. This was followed by exports to Thailand (16 per cent), Malaysia (11.7 per cent) and Kuwait (7.2 per cent).

Imports declined by 2.1 per cent on back of a sharp decline in machinery and transport equipment imports (which dropped by 26 per cent), animal and vegetable oils and fats (down 25 per cent) and miscellaneous transactions (75 per cent).

The highest share of imports in October 2015 came from Malaysia accounting for 20.2 per cent, followed by Singapore (20 per cent), China (13.7 per cent) and US (7.8 per cent).

The IMTS report for Brunei Darussalam adopts the General System for recording trade statistics which cover imports, domestic exports and re-exports. The IMTS full report for October 2015 is available at JPKE’s website at www.depd.gov.bn.


Sumber - The Brunei Times