The country's trade surplus rose in May but exports were up only marginally, hit by declines in shipments to some major trading partners, figures provided by the international trade ministry showed today.

The May trade surplus rose to RM6.34 billion from RM5.77 billion in April, as exports climbed just 0.2 percent to RM30.79 billion and imports dropped 2.1 percent to RM24.44 billion.

The marginal increase in export value was mainly attributed to palm oil, transport equipment, chemicals and chemicals products, and wood products, the ministry said in a statement.

While May saw the 67th consecutive monthly trade surplus since November 1997, exports to several major traditional trading partners declined.

Largest market

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) remained the largest export market, absorbing 25.8 percent or RM7.94 billion of the total, but this represented a drop of 4.4 percent from April.

Exports were also down to the United States (1.5 percent), the European Union (3.5 percent) and Hong Kong (3.1 percent).

Meanwhile, exports to Japan reversed a decline of 14.2 percent from the previous month to increase 6.9 percent to RM3.40 billion.

Exports to China grew by 12.2 percent to record the highest monthly value of RM2.18 billion. The ministry said the expansion was broad-based, covering manufactured, agricultural and mining goods.

Exports to India also registered the record month, increasing 36.9 percent to RM1.01 billion.

Exports to the Middle East increased by 13.4 percent to RM772.7 million, with the United Arab Emirates accounting for 42.1 percent of that.

Trade surplus

While overall total imports fell, imports from the US increased by 9.2 percent, mainly due to electrical and electronics products and machinery, appliances and parts.

For the period of January-May, Malaysia registered a trade surplus of RM29.70 billion, with total exports amounting to RM149.87 billion and imports to RM120.17 billion.

Imports of intermediate goods accounted for 72.4 percent of the total, capital goods 13.8 percent and consumption goods 6.3 percent.

Exports were led by electrical and electronic products with 50.2 percent of the total, followed by palm oil (5.9 percent), chemicals and chemical products (5.5 percent), crude petroleum (4.4 percent) and liquefied natural gas. - AFP