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37958
Highest trade surplus in two years
statistikk
2011-01-17T10:00:00.000Z
External economy
en
muh, External trade in goods, import, export, balance of trade (export minus import), mainland exports, imports excluding ships and oil platforms, trade ( between countries, continents and trade regions), international product groups (for example hs, sitc and bec), product groups (for example food, crude oil and metals)External trade , External economy
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External trade in goods, December 2010

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Highest trade surplus in two years

In December, exports came to NOK 74.8 billion, while imports reached NOK 39.1 billion. The trade surplus has not been this high since November 2008. Furthermore, exports of salmon were at an all time high for the fourth month in a row.

Figures for 2010 are available here.

The main reason for the relatively high trade surplus of NOK 35.6 billion in the month of December 2010 is the increased exports of crude oil. Also, an increase in natural gas and mainland exports strengthens the trade balance. On the contrary, the increased import contributes in the opposite direction.

High exports of crude oil

In December 2010, the export value of crude oil came to NOK 28.7 billion. The rise compared to November is due to both increased quantity and oil price. However, the increase in exports value of almost 25 per cent from December 2009 was due to the higher oil price - from NOK 427 to NOK 557 per barrel. The amount of barrels exported was lower in 2010 than in 2009. The value of crude oil exports has not been this high in more than two years.

Increased exports of natural gas

The exported value of natural gas also rose compared with both November 2010 and December the previous year. The value came to NOK 17.6 billion in the last month of 2010. The growth compared with 2009 was about 15 per cent. This is explained by an increased export of gas in gaseous state - the total export of this gas was 10.3 billion cubic metres in December 2010.

External trade in goods, excl. ships and oil platforms. NOK million
 
 January-DecemberChange in per centDecemberChange in per cent
 2009201020092010
 
1 Imports 424 185       447 1635,4      33 106      39 12818,2
2 Exports 746 662 788 6705.663 44974 76117.8
Of which      
Crude oil 243 521 282 48416.023 01928 73424.8
Natural gas 191 698 166 242-13.315 30517 55514.7
Condensates6 4866 215-4.29 3023 322.0
3 Exports excl. crude oil, natural gas and condensates 304 958 333 7289.425 11628 17012.2
4 Trade balance (2-1) 322 477 341 5075.930 34335 63317.4
5 Trade balance excl. oil, natural gas and condensates (3-1)-119 227-113 434.-7 990-10 957.
 

More exports of metals, chemicals and fish

The export of goods in December, excluding ships, oil platforms, crude oil, condensates and natural gas, reached NOK 28.2 billion, compared to NOK 26.2 billion in December 2009, thus showing a moderate increase of NOK 3.1 billion - or 12.2 per cent - compared with December last year.

The commodity group of manufactured goods made for the highest rise - where iron and steel went up by NOK 245 million and non-ferrous metals by more than NOK 1.1 billion. Within the group of non-ferrous metals, higher exports of alclads explain almost half the increase.

Export of chemical products jumped by NOK 981 million. Inorganic chemicals, where silicon exports were at an all time high, explained most of this. Furthermore, the total exports of fish rose by NOK 878 million. Another record salmon export in 2010 was the reason for this. Exports of fresh farmed salmon with head ended at NOK 2.7 billion in December 2010. In the opposite direction, machinery and transport equipment exports fell by almost NOK 1 billion.

All time high exports of electric current

In December, the imported value of goods, excluding ships and oil platforms, came to NOK 39.1 billion; an increase of NOK 6.0 billion compared with 2009.

 

Imports of machinery and transport equipment showed the largest change, up NOK 2.2 billion. Several subgroups explains this, but road vehicles has the highest growth by NOK 600 million. The import of passenger cars makes for about a third of this. Moreover, imports of general and specialised industrial machinery increased by a total of NOK 373 million.

Imports of electric current were NOK 958 million in December 2010; an increase of NOK 738 million compared with the same month in 2009. This is an all time high import for this commodity, explained by an all time high price. However, the quantity was also high. The import of both chemicals and miscellaneous manufactured articles showed an increase of more than NOK 700 million.

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