Non-Oil Trade Surges in Abu Dhabi 

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) The non-oil merchandise trade through the ports of Abu Dhabi increased to Dh14.07 billion in January. According to the monthly report issued by the Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (Scad), imports amounted to Dh11.67 billion (83.0 per cent of total) while non-oil exports stood at Dh1.33 billion (9.4 per cent of total) and re-exports firm at Dh1.07 billion (7.6 percent of total).

"The total non-oil merchandise trade increased by Dh0.63 billion, or 4.7 per cent in January 2012 compared with December 2011," the Scad report said.
A year-on-year comparison (for January 2012 against January 2011) showed a growth of 36.2 per cent in total trade, with imports rising by Dh3.17 billion (37.2 per cent), non-oil exports by Dh0.69 billion, posting a growth above 100 per cent while the value of re-exports declined Dh0.11 billion over the aforesaid period.

An analysis of trade data from December 2011 to January 2012 attributes the slight drop in imports, to a large decrease of Dh1.57 billion in manufactured goods that was partially offset by an increase of Dh1.16 billion (24.6 per cent) in machinery and transport equipment.

In regard to non-oil exports, the top three countries of destination were China (Dhs0.27bn), Saudi Arabia (Dhs0.25bn) and Singapore (Dhs0.18bn); with the combined share of these countries representing 52.7% of total non-oil exports in January 2012.

Bahrain topped the list of destinations for Abu Dhabi's re-exports, receiving merchandise worth (Dhs0.26bn), followed by Saudi Arabia (Dhs0.19bn) and Turkey (Dhs0.17bn); with re-exports to these top 3 partners representing 57.8% of total re-exports during January 2012.