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ndonesia’s trade balance posted a US$22 billion surplus in 2010 on the back of robust export growth, mainly due to surging commodity prices, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Exports rose 35.4 percent to reach an all-time record of $157.73 billion last year, led by rising prices of natural resource-based commodities such as crude palm oil, coal, rubber and copper, BPS chief Rusman Heriawan said on Tuesday.

Imports grew faster than exports, increasing 40.05 percent to $135.61 billion in 2010, he added. “It’s not a problem that our imports grew faster than exports. What matters is that we could maintain a trade surplus, because it will go to our foreign exchange reserves.”

Despite a widening overall surplus, Indonesia suffered a significant $5.6 billion trade deficit with China, the nation that contributed the most to Indonesia’s trade deficit in 2010, Rusman said.

“Brands from many countries assemble their products [in China]. Therefore a lot of final products are exported from there,” he said in reference to China’s export-driven economy, which is also the world’s biggest exporter.

Separately, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu said Indonesia imported a large amount of raw materials and capital goods from China in 2010 to support domestic manufacturers with low prices.

“We have shifted our imports of raw materials and capital goods from countries such as the US and Europe to China so we could get lower prices. That explains why our imports from China were so high,” she said.

Mari said that the $5.6 billion deficit with China rose from $4.6 billion in 2009, but was “better” than the $7.2 billion deficit recorded in 2008.

She said that the widening deficit was not caused by the recent implementation of ASEAN’s free trade agreement with China.

China and 10 ASEAN member nations, including Indonesia, implemented a free trade agreement in 2010 that created the world’s most populous free trade area and its third largest in terms of gross domestic product.

After China, most of Indonesia’s imports came from Japan and Singapore, with imports dominated by oil, gas, mechanical tools, machinery and electricity tools, iron and steel, automobiles and spare parts and organic chemicals.

Meanwhile, the US, Japan and China remained Indonesia’s major export destinations in 2010.

Mari said non-oil commodities dominated the nation’s exports, comprising $129.67 billion of exports, up 33 percent from 2010 — nearly three times the government’s targeted 8.5 percent increase.

Rubber exports grew 67.3 percent to $8.41 billion in 2010, while palm oil exports topped $11.73 billion, a 25.7 percent increase. Cacao exports reached $1.38 billion, up 23 percent from 2009.

Mari said robust growth in non-oil exports could be attributed to significant volume increases for manufactured products, such as in the automotive, footwear and textile industries. Automotive product exports topped $2.3 billion, up 37.6 percent.

The government has targeted the country’s exports to reach $146 billion this year, a modest 15 percent increase compared to 2010, on the back of rising prices for its main export commodities, including textiles, footwear, paper, CPO and its end products, and processed cocoa products, Mari said. (lnd)