Brunei’s total trade increases by 60.9pc

• Nov 17, 2021

Brunei Darussalam’s total trade was valued at BND2,227.4 million in August 2021, showing an increase by 60.9 per cent from BND1,384.6 million during the same month last year.

Meanwhile, for month-to-month changes, total trade for August 2021 decreased by 11.1 per cent compared to July 2021, a press statement from the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics (DEPS) said.

Total exports increased by 135.7 per cent year-on-year to BND1,463.5 million compared to BND620.8 million in August 2020.

This was mainly due to the increase in mineral fuels exports to BND1,153.3 million (August 2021) from BND505.0 million (August 2020), and chemicals exports to BND290.3 million (August 2021) from BND102.1 million (August 2020).

The increase in mineral fuels exports was largely due to an increase in the value of exports of crude oil, exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and exports of petroleum products from the downstream activities. The increase in exports of crude oil was attributed to a significant increase in average price to USD72.79 per barrel (August 2021) from USD46.99 per barrel (August 2020), as well as an increase in total volume to 77.02 thousand barrels per day (August 2021) from 70.09 thousand barrels per day (August 2020).

Likewise for LNG exports, the increase was due to an increase in the average price to USD9.92 per MMBtu (August 2021) from USD5.03 per MMBtu (August 2020), as well as an increase in total volume to 906,328 MMBtu per day (August 2021) from 752,055 MMBtu per day (August 2020). Meanwhile, exports value of petroleum products from downstream activities increased to BND540.6 million from BND206.5 million.

In terms of commodity by section, mineral fuels were the major contributor to Brunei Darussalam’s exports (78.8 per cent), followed by chemicals (19.8 per cent), and machinery and transport equipment (0.5 per cent).

The main exports market in August 2021 was Japan (25.1 per cent) followed by China (19.6 per cent) and Singapore (18.8 per cent). The largest export commodity to Japan and Singapore was mineral fuels, while exports to China was chemicals.

For imports, the total value increased to BND763.9 million (August 2021) from BND763.8 million (August 2020) mainly driven by an increase in imports of mineral fuels largely used as input for the production of petrochemical products.

The five main imports by commodity were: mineral fuels (64.5 per cent), followed by machinery and transport equipment (13.6 per cent), food (6.6 per cent), chemicals (5.4 per cent) and manufactured goods (5.1 per cent).

In the end use category, imports of intermediate goods accounted for 58.4 per cent of the total imports, followed by capital goods (37.3 per cent) and consumption goods (4.3 per cent). For imports by trading partners, the highest share was from Malaysia (20.4 per cent), followed by Saudi Arabia (17.9 per cent), and Colombia (13.1 per cent) with the largest import commodity being mineral fuels.

In terms of the mode of transport, the highest share was transport by sea, which amounted to BND2,139.2 million (96.0 per cent), followed by air transport (BND62.2 million or 2.8 per cent) and land (BND25.9 million or 1.2 per cent).

The International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) for Brunei Darussalam adopts the general system for recording trade statistics, which covers imports, domestic exports, and re-exports.

The IMTS full report for August 2021 is available at the DEPS’ website at www.deps.gov.bn.

Source: https://borneobulletin.com.bn/bruneis-total-trade-increases-by-60-9pc/