ZAMBIA’S COPPER EXPORTS RISE
‘‘Zambia is a peaceful country hence the need to find ways of stopping the trend which has potential to divide the country.’’
The report showed that refined copper exports increased from 71,501.0 tonnes in April to 73,777.9 tonnes in May, this year.
According to the report, copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for the corresponding months decreased by 6.5 percent, from $6,445 in April 2019 to $6,028 per tonne in May 2019.
“Since copper accounts for the largest weight/ proportion of traditional exports, any change in the volume and price/value has a direct bearing on the performance of traditional exports,” the report said.
Zambia’s major export products in May, the report indicated, were
from the intermediate goods category, mainly comprising copper anodes for electrolytic refining and cathodes of refined copper, and accounted for 82.5
percent.
Exports from the consumer goods, raw materials and capital goods categories, collectively accounted for 17.5 percent of total exports.
Non-Traditional Exports (NTE) were divided into agricultural and non- agricultural products.
The report said agricultural products accounted for a share of 24.7 percent of Zambia’s NTEs in May compared to 15.5 percent recorded in April.
“The export earnings from agricultural products increased by 96.9 percent from K333.8 million in April 2019 to K 657.2 million in May 2019,” the report said
The report said the major export commodities were ‘other raw cane sugar ‘ at 20.9 percent, tobacco, partly or wholly stemmed/stripped at 13.8 percent and tobacco, not stemmed/stripped at 8.7 percent. According to the report, non-agricultural products accounted for a share of 75.3 percent of Zambia’s NTEs in May compared to 84.5 percent recorded in April 2019.
“The export earnings from non-agricultural products recorded an increase of 10.3 percent from K1, 815.1 million in April 2019 to K2,001.6 million in May 2019.