Malaysia’s trade performance maintained its upward momentum in January 2023 with trade, exports, and imports registering the highest monthly value for the month of January. Trade expanded by 1.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM207.51 billion. Exports rose by 1.6% to RM112.84 billion and imports were higher by 2.3% to RM94.67 billion.
Trade surplus amounted to RM18.16 billion, a decrease of 2.1%. This marked the 33rd consecutive month of trade surplus since May 2020. The export expansion was bolstered by strong exports of petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as electrical and electronic (E&E) products. Exports to major trading partners notably ASEAN and Japan recorded double-digit growth.
Compared to December 2022, trade, exports, imports, and trade surplus contracted by 11.8%, 14.4%, 8.6%, and 35.5%, respectively, due to shorter working days and long festive holidays.
Exports of E&E Products Remained Robust in January 2023, exports of manufactured goods which accounted for 84.2% of total exports decreased marginally by 0.1% y-o-y to RM94.97 billion. This was due to lower exports of manufactures of metal, rubber products as well as iron and steel products.
However, expansion in exports was seen for petroleum products, E&E products, optical and scientific equipment as well as beverages and tobacco. Collectively, exports of petroleum products and E&E products accounted for 52.2% of Malaysia’s total exports and rose by RM7.66 billion.
Exports of mining goods (9.1% share) soared by 50.1% y-o-y to RM10.23 billion, the 22nd successive month of double-digit growth which was led by higher exports of LNG. Exports of agriculture goods (6.2% share) declined by 19.8% to RM7.01 billion compared to January 2022 due to lower exports of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products.
Major exports in January 2023:
• E&E products, valued at RM46.96 billion and accounted for 41.6% of total exports, increased by 4.7% from January 2022;
• Petroleum products, RM11.92 billion, 10.6% of total exports, surged by 87.5%;
• LNG, RM6.68 billion, 5.9% of total exports, surged by 62.3%;
• Chemicals and chemical products, RM5.78 billion, 5.1% of total exports, decreased by 6.6%; and
• Palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products, RM5.29 billion, 4.7% of total exports, decreased by 23.2%.
On a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, exports of mining goods edged up by 5.8% while exports of manufactured and agriculture goods declined by 14% and 36.4%, respectively.
