XN000022-1987-09-03 — Page 2

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1987

HALF-YEARLY AIRBORNE MERCHANDISE TRADE FIGURES RELEASED

TOTAL MERCHANDISE TRADE BY AIR IN THE FIRST HALF OF

1987, AT $72,982 MILLION, INCREASED BY 36 PER CENT IN VALUE TERMS COMPARED WITH THE SAME PERIOD IN 1986, SUMMARY STATISTICS ON AIRBORNE MERCHANDISE TRADE RELEASED TODAY (THURSDAY) BY THE CENSUS AND STATISTICS DEPARTMENT INDICATED.

EXPORTS, IMPORTS

IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1987, AIRBORNE DOMESTIC AND RE-EXPORTS INCREASED IN VALUE BY 25 PER CENT, 38 PER CENT AND 48 PER CENT RESPECTIVELY OVER THE SAME PERIOD IN 1986.

HOWEVER, THEIR SHARES IN TOTAL DOMESTIC EXPORTS, IMPORTS AND RE-EXPORTS WERE 27 PER CENT, 20 PER CENT AND 19 PER CENT RESPECTIVELY, WHICH WERE SLIGHTLY LOWER THAN THE CORRESPONDING SHARES OF 28 PER CENT, 21 PER CENT AND 19 PER CENT RECORDED FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 1986, BECAUSE THE VALUE OF MERCHANDISE TRADE BY OTHER MODES OF TRANSPORT HAVE GROWN FASTER THAN THAT BY AIR.

IN TERMS OF WEIGHT, AIRBORNE IMPORTS AMOUNTED то 115,386 TONNES OR 0.5 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL IMPORT TONNAGE, WHILE TOTAL AIRBORNE EXPORTS AMOUNTED TO 173,931 TONNES OR 1.4 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL EXPORT TONNAGE.

AIRBORNE DOMESTIC EXPORTS ΤΟ MAJOR MARKETS

ARE GIVEN IN

TABLE 1.

INCREASES WERE RECORDED IN AIRBORNE DOMESTIC EXPORTS ΤΟ ALL MAJOR MARKETS IN VALUE TERMS BETWEEN THE FIRST HALF OF 1987 AND THE SAME PERIOD IN 1986, PARTICULARLY FOR JAPAN (+96 PER CENT), ITALY (+69 PER CENT), THE NETHERLANDS (+49 PER CENT), SWITZERLAND (+39 PER CENT) AND SINGAPORE (+38 PER CENT).

ANALYSED BY COMMODITY CATEGORIES, INCREASES IN AIRBORNE DOMESTIC EXPORTS WERE RECORDED MAINLY IN CLOTHING (BY $2,214 MILLION OR 30 PER CENT); PHOTOGRAPHIC APPARATUS, EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES AND OPTICAL GOODS, WATCHES AND CLOCKS (BY $652 MILLION OR 18 PER CENT}; ELECTRICAL MACHINERY, APPARATUS AND APPLIANCES AND ELECTRICAL PARTS THEREOF (BY $621 MILLION OR 41 PER CENT); AS WELL AS MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURED ARTICLES, INCLUDING MAINLY JEWELLERY, SILVERSMITHS' WARES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF PRECIOUS OR SEMI-PRECIOUS MATERIALS (BY $611 MILLION OR 36 PER CENT).

GOLDSMITHS' AND

CENT);

(BY $1

GENERAL MILLION

DECREASES IN VALUE WERE RECORDED IN OFFICE MACHINES AND AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING EQUIPMENT (BY $28 MILLION OR 1 PER NON-FERROUS METALS (BY $1 MILLION OR 22 PER CENT); AS WELL AS INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT AND MACHINE PARTS OR 1 PER CENT).

/FURTHER ANALYSIS