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Record high trade surplus in February
statistikk
2012-03-15T10:00:00.000Z
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, February 2012

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Record high trade surplus in February

Exports of goods came to NOK 84.5 billion, while imports reached NOK 39.2 billion in February 2012. High exports of crude oil and gas gave a trade surplus of NOK 45.3 billion, which represented a rise of 53.6 per cent from February last year, and also the highest ever registered.

Rising exports explains the rise in the trade surplus compared to February 2012. The exports value rose by NOK 16.7 billion - or 24.6 per cent. The imports remained at almost the same level. The export of shelf products was the highest ever registered. The growth was mainly found within the exports of natural gas, however the exports of crude oil also rose mainly due to a higher oil price.

Very high oil price

Norway exported crude oil amounting to NOK 30.6 billion in February 2012, which was NOK 3.9 billion higher than January this year and NOK 6.1 billion or 24.7 per cent higher than for the same month in 2011.

The growth compared to last year is mainly due to higher oil prices. The price per barrel was NOK 692 this month, compared to NOK 603 in February last year. This represents the third highest oil price in NOK ever registered - close to the all time high in the summer of 2008. This was also almost NOK 23 higher than the price in January this year.


The exported volume also rose compared to February 2011, from 40.7 million barrels to 44.2 million, however this is within the usual level of exported barrels.

High exports of natural gas also in February

The exported value of natural gas in February came to NOK 22.9 billion, which was NOK 1.3 billion less than January this year when the export quantity was a record high. Though compared to February last year, the growth was NOK 7.7 billion, or 50.7 per cent.

The largest determinant was the same as for the January figures; volume growth. The total amount came to 10.0 billion standard cubic metres and the corresponding figure for 2011 was 8.7 billion sm3.

External trade in goods, excl. ships and oil platforms. NOK million (Corrected 15 March 2012 at 12.20 pm)
  January-February Change in
per cent 		February Change in
per cent
  20111 20121 20111 20121
1 Imports 76 585      76 912 0.4      38 289      39 171 2.3
2 Exports  142 015  166 272 17.1 67 788 84 470 24.6
Of which            
Crude oil 53 388 57 242 7.2 24 521 30 574 24.7
Natural gas 32 617 47 115 44.4 15 197 22 896 50.7
Condensates  894 2 084  133.0  208 1 120  437.1
3 Exports excl. crude oil, natural gas and condensates 55 115 59 831 8.6 27 861 29 880 7.2
4 Trade balance (2-1) 65 429 89 361 36.6 29 499 45 298 53.6
5 Trade balance excl. oil, natural gas and condensates (3-1) -21 470 -17 081 . -10 428 -9 291 .
1"2010" was corrected to "2011" and "2011" to "2012" 15 March 2012 at 12.20 pm.

Increased mainland exports despite lower fish, metal and chemical product exports

The mainland exports totalled NOK 29.9 billion in February, which was a rise of NOK 2.0 billion, or 7.2 per cent, from February last year.

Fish exports went down by NOK 329 million or 7.2 per cent compared to last February. Fresh salmon showed a decline of NOK 127.5 million due to a lower price. The exported quantity increased.

Chemical products also declined by NOK 454 million. Within the export of metals, exports of iron and steel rose slightly by NOK 67 million, while exports of non-ferrous metals went down by NOK 315 million. One of the reasons for this was lower prices of nickel.

Moreover, the groups of refined mineral products and liquefied propane and butane grew by NOK 657 and NOK 719 million respectively. Exports of machinery specialised for particular industries grew by NOK 519 million.

Slight rise in imports

The import value of goods excluding ships and oil platforms came to NOK 39.2 billion in February. This is a small increase of NOK 882 billion, or 2.3 per cent, from February last year.

The main commodity groups crude materials and mineral fuels showed a decline compared to last year. Imports of metalliferous ores went down by NOK 760 million and imports of electric current by NOK 923 million. As mentioned in January, the need for imports of electric current has been lower than last year due to high water reservoir levels. Additionally, the imports of metalliferous ores were high last year.

The import value of machinery and transport equipment rose by almost NOK 1.8 billion. General industrial machinery rose the most, by NOK 432 million. Imports of power generating machinery and specialised machinery rose by NOK 280 and 226 million respectively.

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