According to the Lebanese Ministry of Industry, the value of industrial exports rose by an annual 6.3% from $175.9 million (M) in the first month of 2017 to $187M in January 2018.
In details, the main exported products in the first month of 2018 were “base metals and articles of base metal” whose value reached $38.5M, notably rising from $26.07M in January last year. The category’s main export market was Turkey which imported 38% of Lebanon’s total exported “base metals and articles of base metal”.
As for exports of “products of the chemical industries”, they came in second position with a total value of $37.7M in January 2018 and recorded a significant uptick from $22.2M in January 2017. France alone imported 26.8% of the country’s total “products of the chemical industries” in Jan. 2018.
In turn, products of “machinery and electrical equipment” came in third with $33.8M worth of exports, of which 22.5% were imported by Iraq in the first month of 2018. However, exports of this category contracted by 20.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) on the back of declined machinery imports by major markets like Syria, Libya, the UAE, and Qatar.
A smaller component of industrial exports,”Plastics, rubber and articles thereof”, also supported the 6.3% uptick in total industrial exports over the period as it increased by 32.2% y-o-y to stand at $11.9M in January 2018.
In terms of imports of “industrial machinery and equipment”, they climbed by a yearly 14.7% to settle at $24M in January 2018. In details, imports of “machinery for the food industry” were the largest at a value of $4.7M, of which 34% originated from Italy. In their turn, imports of “machines used in packaging” followed, amounting to $3.3M of which 94% were mainly German packaging machines imported to Lebanon in January 2018.
Yearly Comparison of Total Industrial Exports (in $M)
Source: Ministry of Industry