In December 2021, Brunei Darussalam’s total trade was valued at BND2,640.6 million, an increase by 74.1 per cent from BND1,516.8 million during the same month last year.
Meanwhile, for month-to-month changes, total trade for December 2021 increased by 12.3 per cent compared to November 2021.
Total exports increased by 90.3 per cent year-on-year to BND1,523.5 million compared to BND800.6 million in December 2020. This was mainly due to the increase in Mineral Fuels exports to BND1,224.7 million (December 2021) from BND647.3 million (December 2020), and Chemicals exports to BND246.6 million (December 2021) from BND134.9 million (December 2020).
The increase in Mineral Fuels exports was largely due to an increase in the value of exports of crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum products from the downstream activities.
The increase in exports of crude oil was attributed to a significant increase in average price to USD77.63 per barrel in December 2021 from USD49.32 per barrel in December 2020, as well an increase in the volume exported to 92.90 thousand barrels per day from 73.30 thousand barrels per day during the same period.
Furthermore, the increase in the exports of LNG was due to an increase in the average price to USD11.17 per MMBtu from USD6.74 per MMBtu.
Meanwhile, the exports value of petroleum products from downstream activities increased to BND520.0 million from BND182.5 million, of which the main commodity was automotive diesel fuels.
In terms of commodity by section, Mineral Fuels represents the major contributor to Brunei Darussalam’s exports at 80.4 per cent, followed by Chemicals 16.2 per cent, and Machinery and Transport Equipment 1.7 per cent.
The main exports market in December 2021 was Japan at 25.5 per cent followed by Australia 18.0 per cent and China 15.2 per cent. The largest export commodity to Japan and Australia was Mineral Fuels. For imports, the total value increased to BND1,117.1 million (December 2021) from BND716.2 million (December 2020) mainly due to a significant increase in imports of Mineral Fuels.
The five main imports by commodity were Mineral Fuels with 67.8 per cent, followed by Machinery and Transport Equipment 16.0 per cent, Food 5.3 per cent, Manufactured Goods 3.9 per cent and Miscellaneous Manufactured Articles 3.4 per cent.
By End Use category, imports of Intermediate Goods accounted for 58.8 per cent of the total imports, followed by Capital Goods 37.1 per cent and Consumption Goods 4.1 per cent.
For imports by trading partners, the highest share was from Russia at 32.4 per cent, followed by Malaysia 27.0 per cent, and Australia 10.2 per cent, with Mineral Fuels as the largest import commodity.
According to the mode of transport, in December 2021, the highest share for both exports and imports was transport by sea, which amounted to BND2,466.8 million or 93.4 per cent.
This was followed by air transport BND140.3 million or 5.3 per cent and via land BND33.4 million or 1.3 per cent.
For whole year 2021, the total trade was valued at BND26,373.6 million, an increase by 60.2 per cent compared to BND16,460.4 million in 2020. Trade balance increased to BND3,336.0 million compared to BND1,783.2 million in 2020, which is an increased of 81.7 per cent year-on-year.
The total exports also showed an increase by 62.8 per cent to BND14,854.8 million compared to BND9,121.8 million in 2020 while the total imports increased by 57.0 per cent from BND7,338.6 million (2020) to BND11,518.8 million in 2021. The increases in both total exports and imports were mainly due to an increase in Mineral Fuels.
The International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) full report for December 2021 is available from the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics’ (DEPS) website at https://deps.mofe.gov.bn.
