External trade in goods, annual series, 2006

These tables and figures contain statistics grouped by the main commodity classifications for goods in external trade, the SITC (The UN Standard International Trade Classification) and the HS (Harmonised System - the international combined customs and statistical nomenclature). The tables are time series, with most of them covering the period 2001 to 2006. However, some cover a shorter period, while the table for crude oil and natural gas covers the period from 1976. Moreover, figures 1-4 cover the period 1987 to 2006, figures 5 and 6 the period 1992 to 2006, while the rest of the figures only cover 2006.

Tables 1 to 4 contain main figures of the Norwegian external trade. The external trade excluding ships and oil platforms (table 3) corresponds to the format of the monthly articles on Statistics Norway's website. Main figures by broad economic category (Broad Economic Categories - BEC) are in tables 5 to 8. Imports excluding ships and oil platforms, and exports excluding crude oil and natural gas as well, are often referred to as traditional imports and traditional exports.

Tables 9 to 12 provide results for two-digit SITC aggregates, whereas table 21 shows results by three-digit SITC. Results by HS chapter are found in tables 13 to 16.

The Norwegian external trade by trade area, continent and partner country is shown in tables 17 and 18, imports by country of origin and exports by country of destination. All countries are included, grouped by continent. The trade areas are defined according to their delimitation in 2006. On the other hand, the annual figures on trade with each individual country reflect the country’s status in each year. As an example, see Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. This principle also applies to table 22, the most extensive table in the publication, on imports and exports by partner country, by two-digit SITC commodity groups. Commodity groups are specified on the basis of a cut-off defined as imports and/or exports of goods of a minimum of NOK 1 million in at least one of the three years in the table, 2004-2006.

Selected external trade areas are presented in more detail in tables 23 to 44, highlighting some commodity flows, and at the same time serving as examples of time series on detailed commodity levels. There are tables on imports of food, exports of fish and fish products, engineering products and metals, exports and imports by activity, exports and imports of ICT goods, imports from developing countries and exports of crude oil and natural gas. The tables on imports of foodstuff and exports of fish list commodities ranked by value in 2006, at detailed, eight-digit commodity level (with some adaptations necessitated by changes in the nomenclature during the years). Tables 24 to 30 are examples of external trade statistics at the most detailed commodity levels, eight-digit national nomenclature (in accordance with the HS) and five-digit SITC. The Norwegian commodity texts used are short versions of the complete texts. The exports of engineering products (table 29) and metals (table 30) correspond to the aggregates used for analytical purposes. The export of commodity (table 31) and import of commodity (table 32) are grouped by activity. In these tables the data of commodity are connected to their industry by using an international activity-/product grouping. Put in different terms, the figures refer to the activity of the commodity and not necessarily the activity of the importing or exporting company.

With regard to the imports from developing countries under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a main point of interest may be to what extent the entitlement to preferential treatment is actually utilised. Since 1991, free trade agreements have been established between EFTA (and thereby Norway) and several of the former GSP countries. Consequently, the number of GSP countries has been lowered. The range of eligible commodities has also been reduced because of the fact that more commodities are duty free.

As of today, nearly one hundred developing countries may be granted preferences according to the GSP. About a quarter of them are classified in the subset of least developed countries (LDC). Tables 35 and 37 show the development of the Norwegian imports from developing countries by the delimitation utilised in the Statistical Yearbook of Norway, and by the GSP and the LDC aggregates. This information is neither shown in the monthly statistics nor in the yearbook. Table 37 shows figures from some of the most important individual GSP/LDC partner countries, in terms of imports eligible for preferential treatment. For information concerning countries that are considered to be GSP or LDC, refer to the appendix.

The unstabilised crude oil transported by pipeline from the Ekofisk Centre to Teesside is recorded as exports to the United Kingdom (UK), along with the Norwegian portion of the crude oil from the British oil field Murchison to Sullom Voe. Pursuant to separation into stabilised crude oil and NGL, some of it is shipped back to Norway, and included as imports from the UK. As a supplement to the official Norwegian export statistics, tables 42 and 43 show the final distribution by country of the shipments of stabilised crude oil and NGL out of Teesside and Sullom Voe. Table 44 shows the partner country distribution of the aggregate of all shipments of Norwegian crude oil directly from the oil fields and from terminals in Norway and the UK.

The so-called electronic commerce is evolving rapidly in the context of international trade. There are no special groupings for this commerce in the tables. The concept of electronic commerce may pertain to the electronic ordering of goods for delivery by traditional means of transportation, or the ordering and electronic delivery of goods such as software. The customs' clearance formality does not encompass any recording of the way the goods are ordered. In the context of the international HS nomenclature, there has been a discussion on the feasibility of introducing separate commodity numbers for software delivered electronically. As of today, mass-produced as well as customised software are included in the Norwegian external trade statistics, whereas the balance of payments (BOP) statistics reclassify imports and exports of customised software as trade in services. The OECD is in the process of preparing guidelines on the definitions of scope and measurement of electronic commerce, an undertaking in which Norway is participating.

Some main results

Imports of goods came to NOK 411.7 billion in 2006 - while exports came to 782.9 billion.

We experienced in 2006, as last year, an all time high in imports, exports and trade surplus. It is also the increased price of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas condensates that contributes to the main part of the increased exports and thereby trade surplus in this year.

Trade with ships and oil platforms, figures that normally vary substantially, made up 1.6 per cent of imports and 1.0 per cent of exports in 2006.

The export value of crude oil, natural gas and condensates increased by 16.3 per cent in 2006 compared with figures from 2005, see figure 2. The annual growth rate was negative in both 2001 and 2002, though positive again since 2003. The value of crude oil, natural gas and NGL in 2006 constituted up to 60.5 per cent of total exports excluding ships and oil platforms.

In the years 2004 and 2005, the value index of exports of goods excluding crude oil, natural gas and condensates, ships and oil platforms showed a considerable increase, see figure 6. The index growth from 2006 showed even stronger growth.

The level of exports in 2006 of NOK 301.9 billion was higher than the average of the last 5-year period. This was primarily due to higher exports of non-ferrous metals. Secondly, the exports of machinery and transport equipment and fish rose in 2006 as was also the case for 2005 (see table 11).

The value index import of goods excluding ships and oil platforms has been quite changeable during the period 2002-2006 (see figure 5). During 2002, there was a considerable drop, compared to a small recovery in 2003 and quite a big jump in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, the value index jumped by 15.5 per cent, the highest growth since 1994. In 2005, the index growth was 9.6 per cent and in 2006 it grew by 15.4 per cent. Furthermore, the volume import index of the same goods increased by 9.4 per cent in 2005 compared with 2004, while growth was 10.4 per cent in 2006 compared with figures from 2005. These changes are related to a boom in the Norwegian economy, which increases the need for goods both for consumption and investment.

According to the same figure, the price index of imported goods excluding ships and oil platforms increased by only 4.6 per cent from 2005 to 2006, while figure 6 shows that the price index of exported goods excluding crude oil, natural gas, condensates, ships and oil platforms rose by 11.8 per cent. Furthermore, the exports volume index grew by 6.7 per cent from 2005 to 2006, a growth of 0.2 per cent higher than the previous period.

Tables on quarterly and annual indices of price and volume are published at this website: External trade in goods , table 50, 4th Quarter 2006.

In 2006, exports of crude oil came to NOK 309.3 billion, up from 289.5 billion in 2005 (see table 38). The increase is due to a rise in the average price of oil, from NOK 348 per barrel in 2005 to NOK 417 in 2006. Quantity exported showed a decrease of about 88.6 million barrels. Exports of natural gas generated NOK 146.9 billion in 2005, up from 103.1 billion in 2005. It is worth noting that exported quantity, 84.6 billion Sm3 (standard cubic meter) is the highest ever; in fact the export quantity has been rising each year since 1994. In 2006, the price was up by an average of NOK 0.49 – i.e. 1.74 per Sm3. This is the highest price of natural gas ever registered.

The number of barrels of crude oil exported in 2006 amounted to 742.5 million, of which 579.4 million barrels were stabilised crude oil shipped from installations on the Continental Shelf or from onshore terminals (Mongstad and Sture). The remaining 163.1 million barrels were unstabilised crude oil, transported by pipeline to the Norwegian-owned terminals in the UK (Teesside and Sullom Voe) for separation and fractionating into stabilised crude oil and NGL (see table 40).

When also including mineral oil products, gases etc., the total export of energy goods amounted to NOK 531.9 billion (see table 7). This is 68.0 per cent of total Norwegian exports in 2006, a slight increase compared with the figures from 2005 when the share was 67.8 per cent.

In the same table, we find that exports of capital goods amounted to NOK 37.7 billion in 2006; thereby the share of exports of these goods remained the same as in 2005 at 4.8 per cent. The average amount for the period 2000-2006 was NOK 34.5 billion. Exports of transport equipment excluding passenger cars amounted to NOK 8.6 billion in 2004, up by 7.5 per cent compared with 2005, while exports of other capital goods increased by 20.8 per cent to NOK 29.0 billion. Exports of other intermediate goods amounted to NOK 143.9, up from NOK 120.5 in 2005. The average amount for the period 2000-2006 was NOK 113.6 billion

Furthermore, exports of goods for consumption rose significantly from 2005 to 2006, by NOK 4.4 billion or 10.0 per cent. Exports of consumption goods consisted mainly of fish and fish products. The increase in export value is therefore due to increased quantity exported and increased price of these commodities, though mainly the increased price of salmon.

The value of imports of passenger cars came to NOK 23.1 billion in 2006; an increase of 16.1 per cent compared with 2005 when the amount was 19.9 billion, see table 5. The value of the import of capital goods in 2006 was NOK 81.1 billion; an increase of 15 per cent compared with figures from 2005. Subsequently, there has been strong growth in imports the last four years of about 10 billion each year. It is mainly the import of transport equipment excluding passenger cars that has declined.

Moreover, the import of consumer goods came to NOK 90.40 billion in 2006. This is an increase of 8.9 per cent compared with 2005. Besides, the import of intermediate goods for further production came to NOK 155.3 billion in 2006; an increase of 16.3 per cent compared with the previous year.

It is mainly the category intermediate goods other than food and beverages for industry and parts for machinery and transport equipment that has contributed to the highest growth in the last couple of years.

In 2006, the annual trade with European countries was 76.1 per cent for exports of goods excluding crude oil, natural gas, condensates, ship and oil platforms and 74.9 per cent for imports excluding ship and oil platforms (see figure 11 and 12). The share of exports value to Europe decreased from 76.8 in 2005 to 76.1 in 2006, while the imports rose from 74.7 to 74.9 per cent.

Exports to Asia came to NOK 33.0 billion, a share of 10.9 per cent, somewhat higher compared with 2005 when the share was 9.9 per cent. Imports from Asia in 2006 came to NOK 52.9 billion, a share of 13.1 per cent, which is 0.4 per cent lower than in 2005. Exports to North and Central America amounted to NOK 30.9 billion - a share of 10.2 per cent, slightly up from 2005 when the share was 9.9 per cent. Imports from North and Central America amounted to NOK 34.7 billion in 2006, consequently a continued rise since last year after a period of steady decline since 2000.