Malaysia: The Return of the E & E Sector

Trade figures, released yesterday (5 June) by the International Trade and Industry Ministry showed total exports in April rose 26.6% year-on-year to RM52.03bil, while imports surged by 27% to RM42.8bil.

Moreover, trade in April this year expanded by 26.7% to RM94.83bil, compared with April last year.

Trade surplus was valued at RM9.22bil, making it the 150th consecutive month of trade surplus since November 1997.

On a month-on-month basis, exports and imports decreased by 12.4% and 5.1% respectively. Total trade was 9.3% lower.

The increase in exports in April of RM10.92bil from a year ago was largely attributed to higher exports of electrical and electronic products (E&E), which increased by 21.6% or RM3.67bil, crude petroleum (93% or RM1.35bil) , chemicals and chemical products (26.2% or RM698.1mil), refined petroleum products (50.4% or RM644.9mil) and liquefied natural gas (33.2% or RM643,5mil).

Singapore, China, the United States, Japan and Hong Kong were the top five export destinations, accounting for 51.4% of Malaysia’s total exports.

Total imports in April increased by 27% to RM42.8bil from April 2009 due mainly to higher imports of intermediate goods.

Total trade during the period January to April increased by 31% to RM373.32bil.

During the same period, exports increased by 29.7% to RM210.74bil, while imports rose 32.8% to RM162.58bil, resulting in a trade surplus of RM48.15bil.

RAM Holdings Bhd group chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng said the export and import figures fell slightly below RAM’s expectation.

Yeah said for April the increase in exports of 26.6% year-on-year was on the lower end of RAM’s expectation, which was range bound between 25% to 30%, while the increase in imports for April of 27% year-on-year was also within the lower range of RAM’s expectation bewteen 25% to 35%.


Yeah said it was difficult to gauge Malaysia’s trade performance over one month.

“Going forward, RAM expects Malaysia’s trade performance to improve further over the next four to six months,” he said.

RHB economist Peck Boon Soon also said Malaysia’s trade figures for April fell below RHB’s expectations.

“For exports, we expected an increase of 30% and imports an increase of 32%,” he said.

Going forward, Peck said there were worrying global economic trends could dampen demand.

“The Euro debt crisis is still on-going and demand from China, especially retailing end is slowing down and may potentially have an adverse effect on exports level worldwide, including Malaysia,” he said.