Overseas merchandise trade: January 2018

Overseas merchandise trade statistics provide information on imports and exports of merchandise goods between New Zealand and other countries.

Key facts

This release refers to trade in goods only.

January 2018 monthly values are actual and compared with January 2017.

Exports rise 9.5 percent for the month

Goods exports rose $373 million (9.5 percent) to $4.3 billion in January 2018. This was a new high for a January month, exceeding the previous high of $4.1 billion in January 2014. This record follows on from the all-time high of $5.5 billion for December 2017.

Milk powder, butter, and cheese led the rise, up $101 million (8.0 percent) to $1.4 billion.

• Milk powder rose $61 million (8.7 percent); the quantity rose 9.7 percent.
• Dairy fats (including butter) rose $21 million (7.5 percent); the quantity fell 21 percent.

Meat and edible offal rose $100 million (17 percent) to $689 million. This was led by lamb – up $58 million (26 percent), and beef – up $21 million (8.4 percent). Exports of lamb to the EU, and sheepmeat (including lamb and mutton) to China, rose.

Logs, wood, and wood articles rose $59 million (25 percent) to $292 million.

Preparations of milk, cereals, flour, and starch rose $53 million (69 percent). This group includes infant formula.

Crude oil exports fell $65 million to almost zero. The timing of shipments can affect the quantity exported. The last time there were no exports of crude oil in a month was in November 2006.

Exports to China fell $18 million, compared with January 2017. This is the first fall since the July 2016 month. Values for the year ended January 2018 were still 25 percent higher than the year ended January 2017.

Imports rise $713 million from January 2017

Goods imports rose $713 million (17 percent) to $4.9 billion in January 2018.

The largest changes in import values were:

• Mechanical machinery and equipment, which led the rise – up $133 million (23 percent) to $700 million. The increase was across a range of commodities, including turbo-jets and food processing machinery.
• Petroleum and products rose $88 million, led by diesel (up $57 million) and motor spirit (up $24 million). Imports of these products from the Republic of Korea rose $113 million, led by diesel.
• Ships, boats, and floating structures rose $78 million.
• Vehicles, parts, and accessories (our largest import commodity group) rose $42 million (6.8 percent) to $659 million:
  • Tractors rose $27 million (191 percent).
  • Passenger motor cars rose $3.8 million (1.0 percent).
  • Goods vehicles showed little change.

Trade deficit in January 2018

The monthly trade balance was a deficit of $566 million (13 percent of exports).

The annual trade deficit was $3.2 billion in January 2018, up from $2.9 billion in December 2017, and down from $3.4 billion in January 2017.

Datasets and more information

Overseas merchandise trade datasets has CSV data for goods imports and exports.

Goods and services trade by country: Year ended September 2017 has information on trade in goods and services.

Revisions

We have updated provisional values published on 30 January 2018. Goods trade statistics for the latest three months are provisional so we can include late data and amendments.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data for imports and exports:

Subject category: Imports and exports

Overseas merchandise trade datasets has CSV data for goods imports and exports.

International trade: September 2020 quarter has information on trade in goods and services.

Definitions and metadata

Overseas merchandise trade – DataInfo+ provides the definitions of terms used in this release and general methodology used to produce overseas merchandise trade statistics.

Media enquiries

Media team
media@stats.govt.nz
021 285 9191

Technical enquiries

Keith Hewitt
04 931 4600
info@stats.govt.nz

ISSN 1178-0320