Trade activity at Lebanon’s main customs offices observed fluctuations during the first five months of 2016. As stated by the Lebanese Customs, total imports grew yearly 10.87% to $7.86B by May 2016, due to the rise in imported volume of goods from 6.16M tons up to May 2015 to 7.68M up to May 2016. As for Exports, total exports dropped by a yearly 6.39% to $1.19B, which can be attributed to the fall in volume from 0.81M tons by May 2015 to 0.64M by May 2016.
The breakdown of transported goods revealed that Port of Beirut (PoB), followed by Rafic Hariri Airport, and Port of Tripoli share the largest value of goods. In details, 75.26% of the country’s imports value and 54.54% of the country’s exports value went through PoB’s customs office by May 2016, compared to a share of 70.41% of total imports and 48.35% of total exports by May 2015. As for Rafic Hariri Airport, it processed a total of 17.76% of Lebanon’s imports value and 31.31% of Lebanon’s exports value, by May 2016.
As for Abboudieh customs office, total exports and imports’ value dropped by 87.19% and 40.24% to reach $27.59M and $8.55M, respectively, by May 2016. As for volume, both imports and exports processed in this office fell by 20.71% and 57.07%, respectively. These significant drops can be justified bythe continuing turmoil in the Syrian territories that is affecting Lebanon’s trade across the borders.
Imports Tonnage by Customs Office by May 2016
Name | Weight in Tons |
Port Of Beirut | 5,917,034 |
Rafic Hariri Airport | 1,396,154 |
Tripoli | 373,243 |
Saida | 101,297 |
Arida | 30,775 |
Masnaa | 28,551 |
Abboudieh | 8,556 |
Tyre | 6,374 |
Postal Parcel | 59 |
Source: Lebanese Customs