TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsManufacturing exports drive trade surplus as coal price remains low
Strong shipments of processed goods and higher-value exports helped maintain Indonesia’s trade surplus in September, while global energy prices, including coal prices, weakened.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A worker stacks rolls of fabric ready for export on April 15 at the Trisula Textile Industries factory in Cimahi, West Java. (AFP/Timur Matahari)
S
trong gains in manufacturing exports helped Indonesia maintain a strong trade surplus in September despite weak global coal prices and falling coal shipments, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) reported on Monday.
Overall exports in September reached US$24.68 billion, up 11.41 percent year-on-year, while imports rose at a slower pace of 7.17 percent. Exports exceeded imports by $4.34 billion, marking a 65th consecutive monthly trade surplus.
The export increase was driven almost entirely by the non-oil and gas sector, which climbed 12.79 percent yoy to $23.68 billion.
BPS deputy for distribution and service statistics Pudji Ismartini said that, over the January–September period, non-oil and gas exports amounted to $209.8 billion, up 8.14 percent from the same period last year, with the manufacturing sector remaining the key growth driver, contributing more than 12 percent of overall export growth.
“The strongest increases came from palm oil, base metals, jewelry, organic chemicals and semiconductors,” she said in the monthly press conference.
Robust manufacturing, which in BPS’s classification includes processing industries like that for crude palm oil (CPO), helped offset a decline in commodity exports, particularly coal, which fell 20.85 percent yoy cumulatively, as global energy prices continued to soften.
In contrast, palm oil exports surged 32.4 percent yoy over the same nine-month period, while cumulative shipments of iron and steel rose 11.81 percent yoy, underscoring a shift toward higher-value-added exports.
