Trade turnover reaches 9.63 billion USD
Trading with a total of 151 countries, exporting to 71 and importing from 149, trade turnover for Mongolia in the first nine months of 2018 totaled at 9.63 billion USD. This signified a 1.9 billion USD or 24.9 percent increase compared to the first nine months of 2017. Driven by higher mining exports, especially coal, trade surplus stood at 931.7 million USD, reported the Mongolian Customs General Administration.
Exports rose by 700 million USD or 15.3 percent to 5.3 billion USD in the first nine months. Looking at the Goods Classification Nomenclature for Foreign Trade, prices for 10 of the 21 classifications increased. In particular, mining export revenue rose by 888.6 million USD, while textile export rose by 69.1 million USD.
As usual, mining exports accounted for 84.6 percent of all exports. The main products included coal, copper concentrate, crude oil, molybdenum, fluorspar, and zinc. Of the 27 million tons of coal worth 2.1 billion USD exported, 99.1 percent of it was exported to China. Compared to the same period last year, coal exports rose by 1.5 million tons thanks to higher demand in China and relatively less border transportation issues. A main contributing factor in helping increase mining export revenues was the fact that the price of coal was increased from 67.5 USD per ton in 2017 to 78.5 USD per ton this year.
Another significant price increase was for copper. Although Mongolia exported 11,500 tons less than what it had exported compared to the first nine months in 2017, the export price of copper per ton increased from 1,065 USD to 1,386 USD. This signified a 320.9 USD increase per ton, contributing a significant portion of the increase in mining revenue. Overall, revenue from copper concentrate exports totaled 1.5 billion USD.
In regards to crude oil, Mongolia exported 4.8 million barrels worth 316.1 million USD. Similar to copper, while the total amount exported was less, specifically 824,600 barrels less, export revenue rose by 43.8 million USD. In 2017, crude oil was 48.3 USD per barrel. In 2018, prices rose to 65.7 USD per barrel.
In contrast, prices for iron ore decreased relative to 2017 but exports increased by 954,000 tons in the first nine months of 2018 compared to last year. Overall, 5.3 million tons of iron ore were exported for 240.4 million USD.
In terms of gold exports, 3.4 tons of gold was exported, which is 6.4 tons less compared to 2017. Gold prices per kilogram in 2018 was 42,104 USD, a 1,356 USD increase compared to the same period in 2017. Gold exports took the largest hit both in terms of volume and revenue, as it dropped by 258.3 million USD.