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Summary
- Things looking up for the NZ trade, imports witness an encouraging rise.
- May 2021 has been the most productive year for car imports.
- Dairy exports large contributor to good results.
The month of May has shown improvement in imports, with vehicles, accessories and their parts making for a large part of the total goods. The only chink in the armour was caused by the lag witnessed in textiles and a surge in food waste. By far, there was a NZ$1.3B rise witnessed in imports in May 2021, as compared to pcp, indicating a 31% rise.
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With the monthly trades balance up by NZ$469M and the average of the 5 previous May balances being NZ$415M, things are looking up for the industry without a doubt.
Alasdair Allen, the international trade manager, was of the view that that had been the most productive month for car imports in all time. It was further added that the huge rise in the import of vehicles was majorly due to the gradual economic and trade recovery from the coronavirus pandemic-related implications.
The rise was witnessed in all trading jurisdictions for cars, be it the EU, which rose by NZ$86M, Japan, which has seen a surge of NZ$115M, or the US, which was up by NZ$54M.
Also read: New Zealand imports surge in April led by vehicles and crude oil
The export story
In the export segment, monthly goods were valued at NZ$5.9B, up by NZ$461M. The major contributor here were dairy products, which witnessed a hike of 12% or NZ$154M, standing at NZ$1.5B as compared to pcp. Dairy witnessed an increase in the export values as well as volumes in May 2021, as compared to pcp.
Milk powder was the highest increasing commodity in this league with it increasing 18% in both value and quantity, recorded as a NZ$129M rise. Fresh milk saw a surge of 42% or NZ$33M in terms of value and 55% quantitatively.
How did wood fare?
In the case of wood export, products, wood, and logs have played a role in increasing the export up NZ$108M. Especially, untreated logs have witnessed a surge of 35% or NZ$104M or 32% quantitatively. Mr. Allen revealed that log exports had been witnessing improvement over the course of the past 4 months.
Annually, however, there was a deficit of NZ$62M in the trade balance. This was noted to be the first annual deficit since June 2020. The deficit in May 2021 stemmed from the import-related recoveries in the recent few months.
