KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's overall trade contracted 16.3% in June 2023 to RM222.14bil as compared to a year ago as the value of shipments exchanged with its major trading partners remained on a slide.
According to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti), the decline in trade value was owing to a 14.1% drop in exports to RM123.98bil and 18.9% contraction in imports to RM98.16bil.
"The performance was similar to other regional markets notably China, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) which recorded negative trade growth for June 2023," it said in a statement.
Malaysia's trade surplus in June however was 11.3% higher than in the same month in 2022 at RM25.81bil.
Miti reported that the export value was bolstered by strong demand for electrical and electronic (E&E) products, iron and steel products, metalliferous ores and metal scrap, transport equipment as well as processed food.
For the entire second quarter of 2023, trade was down 11.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM643.22bil, with export value falling 11.1% to RM348.68bil, imports dropping 11.5% to RM294.54bil and trade surplus shrinking 8.8% to RM54.14bil.
This brought the country's year-to-date trade value 4.6% lower y-o-y to RM1.29 trillion and the trade surplus down 3.6% to RM118.52bil.
By product segment, exports of manufactured goods in June fell 9.5% y-o-y to RM108.78bil on lower exports of petroleum products, palm oil-based manufactured products as well as chemicals and chemical products.
Shipments of agricultural goods during the month dove 42.1% to RM7.44bil owing mainly to lower export of palm oil and palm oil-based agriculture products as export prices decreased significantly.
Exports of mining goods also slumped 34.9% to RM6.91bil on the back of lower exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude petroleum.
Malaysia's trade with its major trading partners were all down for the month of June.
Shipments to the country's biggest trading partner, China, were down 8% to RM16.78bil in June due to fewer exports of LNG and palm oil and palm oil-based products.
Exports to Asean also fell 8.5% y-o-y to RM37.71bil while exports to the US declined 19% y-o-y to RM13.64bil.
Total imports in June dropped 18.9% y-o-y in June to RM98.16bil.
Intermediate goods contributed to the biggest decline with a 25.7% decrease to RM47.59bil
Capital goods contracted 12.1% to RM9.76bil and consumption goods slid 11.8% to RM8.16bil.
