Export remains stable and healthy

Export turnover posted a total of USD27.3bn in October 2021

In figures, export turnover posted a total of USD27.3bn in October, bringing the year-over-year growth back into expansion territory by 0.15%. However, an acceleration in import activities in the second & third quarters was losing momentum since late-3Q21. Import turnover decelerated for three consecutive months from its peak in July, reaching USD26.2bn and narrowing the year-over-year growth to 7.97%. On the other hand, after a series of trade deficits in the April – August period, the trade balance returned into surplus for the second month, by USD1.1bn.

By export structure, 4 over top 10 export products continued to stay in growth territory, including iron & steel products (I&S), still image & video cameras & parts (SIVCP), machine & equipment & tools and instruments (METI), and computers & electronic products & and parts (CEPP), in order from high to low growth. More specifically, export turnover of these groups I&S, SIVCP, METI, and CEPP, were about USD1.22bn, USD0.60bn, USD2.45bn, and USD4.60bn, increasing by 126.05% YoY, 23.29% YoY, 13.04% YoY, and 8.30% YoY.

On the contrary, export of telephones & mobile phones & parts (TMPP) dropped slightly to USD5.20bn, down by 3.69% YoY. Furthermore, pressure from labor shortages and social-distancing measures continued to weigh on the export of labor-intensive products. In detail, export of footwear, wood & wooden products, fishery, other means of transportation & parts & accessories (OtherMoT&parts), kept dropping at two-digit paces, posting USD0.75bn, USD0.78bn, USD0.70bn, and USD0.72bn, down by 46.36% YoY, 39.09% YoY, 23.82% YoY, and 15.09% YoY, respectively. Although being labeled as a labor-intensive group, the export of textiles products improved to USD2.45bn, narrowing its year-over-year contraction to 4.33% YoY.

From the import side, the import growth of electronics products, including TMPP and CEPP groups, started slowing down after accelerating in 2Q21 and 3Q21. Particularly, imports of CEPP and TMPP recorded about USD6.20bn (0.09% YoY) and USD1.90bn (-2.33% YoY) in the month. Moreover, imports of fabrics and plastic products (Plasprod) were also in contraction territory, posting USD1.05bn and USD0.65bn, and down 4.90% YoY and 4.02% YoY, respectively. In contrast, in the top 10 import products, imports of iron & steel, chemical products (Chemprod), chemicals, other base metals, and plastics, remained two-digit growth, reaching USD0.99bn, USD0.70bn, USD0.60bn, USD0.70bn, and USD0.80bn, and increasing by 65.38% YoY, 43.03% YoY, 41.47% YoY, 27.06% YoY, and 11.54% YoY, respectively. Finally, the import of METI group posted USD3.50bn and maintained its growth at 5.41% YoY.