ABU DHABI: The UAE non-oil foreign trade maintained a sturdy growth of 11.5 per cent Y-o-Y till last October, Federal Customs Authority (FCA) said in its report. FCA preliminary statistical data confirmed that the value of UAE non-oil foreign trade in the first ten months of 2010 jumped Dhs62 billion to Dhs605.4 billion from Dhs543.2 billion in the year 2009.
UAE non-oil foreign trade mirrors the sound economic polices pursued by the UAE wise leadership since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.
The sturdy uptick in trade volume suggests economic rebound and viability indicating more positive outlooks and results in the near future. The Authority also stated that the most notable readings from these statistical data are the record surge in exports and re-exports compared to imports.
“Preliminary statistical data for October 2010 reflected a 5.5 per cent rise in imports during the first ten months of 2010 to record Dhs391.8 billion in October 2010 as compared to Dhs371.5 billion in October 2009 . Exports jumped 37.4 per cent from Dhs51.1 billion in the 10-month period to Dhs70.3 billion.
Similarly, re-exports maintained a Y-o-Y growth rate of 19 per cent to Dhs143.3 billion from Dhs120.5 billion,” FCA added.
Total volume
The Total volume of UAE non-oil trade grew 14 per cent in October 2010 as compared to October 2009, as it jumped to Dhs70 billion in October 2010 from Dhs56.8 billion in October 2009. The preliminary data reflected a 27 per cent increase to Dhs8.5 billion in non-oil trade exports for the same month, rising from Dhs6.7 billion in year-earlier period. Re-exports amounted to Dhs15.3 billion in October 2010, jumping 22 per cent Y-o-Y from Dhs12.6 billion. Imports rose 10 per cent from Dhs37.5 billion in October 2009 to Dhs41.1 billion.
In terms of weight, the UAE non-oil foreign trade volume in October 2010 reached about 6.4 million tonnes, including 3.9 million tonnes of imports, 1.7 million tonnes of exports and 778 thousand tonnes of re-exports.
Thus, the average weight of imported, exported and re-exported shipments and consignments dealt with by the different customs ports for the same month amounted to about 27 thousand ton per day on the basis of official working hours (8 hours for 5 days a week), at an average of 3 thousand tons per hour.
According to FCA India, China, US, Japan, Germany, UK, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and France were the top ten exporters to the UAE in October 2010 with a total value of Dhs24.5 billion, or 59 per cent of the UAE imports. On the level of non-oil exports, India, Switzerland, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Pakistan, Kuwait, China and Oman spearheaded importers from the UAE with Dhs6.9 billion, accounting for 81 per cent of the UAE exports.
Meanwhile, India, Iran, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Iraq, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UK and Kuwait topped the list in terms of re-exports with Dhs10.9 billion, representing 71 per cent of the UAE re-exports.
UAE-GCC trade
The total value of UAE-GCC non-oil foreign trade hit Dhs5.2 billion in October 2010, with Dhs2.1 billion imports, Dhs906 million exports and Dhs2.2 billion re-exports. Saudi Arabia maintained its first rank among GCC region’s trading partners with a total value of Dhs1.7 billion. Bahrain came second with Dhs1.4 billion, followed by Qatar (Dhs774 million), Kuwait (Dhs709 million) and Oman (Dhs670 million).