Phuket Business: New trade surplus high; FDI jumps 66%; Foreign shares to be scrutinized

PHUKET: Three-quarters of the way into the government’s current fiscal year, international trade in Phuket is thriving, with this year’s trade surplus already surpassing last year’s record high.

Phuket Customs House’ records through June 30 show that the value of exports in the 2012 government fiscal year (October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012) is now at 12.06 billion baht – just 440 million baht shy of the previous year’s total.

Meanwhile, the combined value of imports is up to 1.67bn baht, compared to last year’s full-year total of 2.12bn baht.

With three months still to go before the fiscal books are finalized, the island’s trade surplus of exports over imports – 10.39bn baht – has already surpassed last year’s full-year figure of 10.38bn baht.

Indeed, the prospects for another record breaking year in trade in Phuket is looking bright, with the total value of trade – the sum of exports and imports – now clearing 13.7bn baht, and looking likely to surmount last year’s full-year figure of 14.6bn baht.

To nobody’s surprise, the island’s top export this year, by far, has been block rubber, with exports of the commodity currently valued at 8.6bn baht.

This is followed by rubber fiberboard (2.03bn baht), motorboats and related components (1.1bn baht), live sea fish (103mn baht) and frozen sea fish (87mn baht).

Topping the list of the island’s imports, by value, is cargo vessels, worth a total of 545mn baht. This is followed by chilled sea fish (466mn baht), sports and leisure vessels (443mn baht), frozen sea fish (149mn baht) and boiler components (40mn baht).

As for export receipts, Customs reported collecting 1,071 bills of lading (b/l) so far this year – 97% of last year’s full-year figure of 1,101.

In contrast, a total of 737 b/l were collected on imports, about 85% of the 863 b/l collected last year.

Revenue collected by Customs from trade so far this year is just over 36mn baht.

This comes from 26.2mn baht in Value Added Tax (72%), 7mn baht from Customs fees (19.4%) and 2.96mn baht (8.1%) from Import duties.

— Steven W. Layne