10/4/05 (Bernama)  -  Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia recorded a higher trade surplus of RM7.6 billion in February 2007 compared with RM7.4 billion in February last year.

Total exports and imports for the month were valued at RM41.1 billion and RM33.5 billion respectively as against exports of RM42.3 billion and imports of RM34.9 billion a year earlier, said the Statistics Department.

The largest export revenue earner was electrical and electronic products, valued at RM18.7 billion and accounted for 45 percent of total exports, the department said in a statement Monday.

Imports of intermediate and capital goods, which were valued at RM27.9 billion, constituted 83.4 percent of total imports.

For the first two months of this year, the country recorded a lower trade surplus of RM15.2 billion as against RM16.2 billion in the same period a year ago, the department said.

Export registered an increase of 4.3 percent from RM85.4 billion to RM89.1 billion while imports expanded by 6.8 percent from RM69.2 billion to RM73.9 billion as compared with the corresponding period of 2006.

Electrical and electronic products, valued at RM40.7 billion, remained as Malaysia's largest export earner and accounted for 45.6 percent of total exports during the January-February 2007 period.

Export revenue from this category of commodities rose by 1.8 percent or RM0.7 billion.

The major component, electronic integrated circuits, which accounted for 28.2 percent of total exports of electrical and electronic, went up by 12.6 percent or RM1.3 billion to RM11.5 billion, the department said.

Palm oil and palm oil-based products, ranked as the second largest export revenue earner with a total combined value of RM5.1 billion, contributed 5.7 percent to total exports.

Exports of palm oil, the major commodity at 67.6 percent in this group of products, grew by 23.9 percent or RM659.6 million to RM3.4 billion.

Crude petroleum, the third largest commodity which accounted for 5.6 percent of total exports, decreased by 3.2 percent or RM0.2 billion to RM5.0 billion, the department said.

The decline, it added, was solely due to lower average export unit value by 15.1 percent or RM275 per tonne as its export volume was higher by 14.0 percent or 349,000 tonnes.

The fourth largest export earner, liquefied natural gas (LNG) which was valued at RM4.4 billion or 5.0 percent of total exports, expanded by 9.5 percent or RM0.4 billion.

This improvement was attributed to an increase in average export unit value of 1.1 percent or RM11.1 per tonne as well as an increase in export volume by 8.4 percent or 324,000 tonnes.

Timber and timber-based products, the fifth largest export earner which represented 4.1 percent of total exports, grew by 13.3 percent or RM428.5 million to RM3.6 billion.

Petroleum products, the sixth largest export commodity which accounted for 2.2 percent of total exports, dropped by 36.5 percent or RM1.1 billion to RM1.9 billion.

Malaysia's top five trading partners were the United States, Singapore, the European Union, Japan and China.

These countries contributed 60.9 percent to Malaysia's total trade during the January-February 2007 period, the department said.-Bernama