In May this year, Brunei Darussalam’s total trade was valued at BND2,846.3 million, an increase by 48.7 per cent from BND1,913.9 million during the same month in 2021.
Meanwhile, for month-to-month changes, total trade for May decreased by 5.7 per cent compared to April.
Total exports increased by 51.9 per cent from BND1,749.4 million in May this year compared to BND1,151.8 million in May 2021. This was mainly due to the increase in mineral fuels exports to BND1,362.5 million from BND840.8 million (May 2021). In addition, chemicals exports increased to BND360.1 million in May from BND227.2 million in the same month of 2021.
The increase in mineral fuels exports was mainly due to the higher export value of crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum products. In May, average price of crude oil increased by 69.5 per cent to USD118.56 per barrel from USD69.96 per barrel in May 2021.
Meanwhile, LNG export value increased by 58.6 per cent to USD12.70 per MMBtu in May from USD8.01 per MMBtu in May 2021. For the petroleum products export, it recorded an increased to BND707.4 million from BND400.1 million in May 2021, which the main commodity was automotive diesel fuels.
In terms of export commodity, mineral fuels represents the major contributor to the Sultanate’s exports at 77.9 per cent, followed by chemicals (20.6 per cent), and machinery and transport equipment (0.4 per cent).
The main exports market in May was Australia at 19.8 per cent, followed by China (19.1 per cent) and Singapore (15 per cent). The largest export commodity to Australia and Singapore was mineral fuels, meanwhile, to China was chemicals.
For imports, the total value increased to BND1,096.9 million (May) from BND762.1 million (May 2021) mainly due to a significant increase in imports of mineral fuels.
The five main imports by commodity were mineral fuels with 62.5 per cent, followed by machinery and transport equipment at (10.2 per cent), chemicals at (8.2 per cent), crude materials, inedible (six per cent) and food (5.7 per cent).
Most of the country’s imports which was about 59.2 per cent are used as intermediate goods for processing followed by capital goods (37.4 per cent) for business operations and consumption goods (3.4 per cent) for household use.
For imports by trading partners, the highest share was from Malaysia at 30.4 per cent followed by Kazakhstan (14.7 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (13.3 per cent), with mineral fuels as the largest import commodity.
According to the mode of transport, in May, the highest share for both exports and imports was transport by sea, which amounted to BND2,719.3 million or 95.5 per cent.
This was followed by air transport (BND98.7 million or 3.5 per cent) and via land (BND28.3 million or one per cent).
The International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) report for May is available from the DEPS’ website at https://deps.mofe.gov.bn.
