During the 1970s, petroleum and manufactures displaced rubber and tin as Malaysia's leading exports. Malaysia now exports over a third (37%) of the world's fixed vegetable oil, and a considerable portion (14%) of the world's radio broadcast receivers, but its largest export revenues come from sales of office machines. The top eight exports are:
% OF COUNTRY TOTAL | |
Office machines and parts | 21 |
Transistors and valves | 19 |
Telecommunications equipment | 13 |
Crude petroleum | 4.0 |
Natural and manufactured gas | 3.7 |
Fixed vegetable oil | 2.7 |
Electrical breakers | 2.6 |
Apparel | 2.3 |
In 2000 Malaysia's imports were distributed among the following categories:
Consumer goods | 4.4% |
Food | 3.6% |
Fuels | 4.8% |
Industrial supplies | 21.3% |
Machinery | 60.2% |
Transportation | 4.1% |
Other | 1.6% |
Exports went primarily to the US (21%), Singapore (18%), and Japan (13%). Imports came primarily from Japan (21%), the US (17%), and Singapore (14%). Principal trading partners in 2000 (in millions of US dollars) were as follows:
COUNTRY | EXPORTS | IMPORTS | BALANCE |
United States | 20,160 | 13,637 | 6,523 |
Singapore | 18,046 | 11,762 | 6,284 |
Japan | 12,834 | 17,240 | -4,406 |
China (inc. Hong Kong) | 7,464 | 5,494 | 1,970 |
Netherlands | 4,110 | 578 | 3,532 |
Thailand | 3,549 | 3,154 | 395 |
Korea | 3,280 | 3,663 | -383 |
United Kingdom | 3,044 | 1,600 | 1,444 |
Germany | 2,457 | 2,442 | 15 |
Indonesia | 1,706 | 2,269 | -563 |
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: