RIYADH: Five commodities captured more than 69 percent of the Saudi imports whose value exceeded SR530 billion by the end of 2015, according to figures released by the Saudi Customs Department.
The five commodities included electric equipment, foodstuffs, transport equipment, ordinary metals and products, and chemical products and plastics.
Electric devices and equipment ranked top of the Saudi imports last year at SR195 billion, or 30 percent of the overall imports, while its exports amounted to SR3.7 billion, the Customs Department stated in a report.
The transport equipment ranked second among the Saudi imports valued at SR119 billion, or 18 percent of the Saudi total imports, while its exports exceeded SR257.5 million.
Foodstuffs ranked the third biggest Saudi imports in the year at SR87.4 billion, or 13.4 percent of the total imports. The Kingdom exported foodstuffs worth SR13.6 billion in the same year, the report said.
On the other hand, chemical products and plastics ranked top of the Saudi non-oil exports at SR118 billion, representing 74 percent of the Kingdom’s non-oil exports. The Kingdom imported chemical products worth SR60.5 billion in the year.
China topped 20 countries from where the Kingdom imported its requirements while non-oil exports to it reached SR27 billion, the report said.
The United States was the second biggest exporting countries to the Kingdom at SR84 billion while non-oil exports reached SR3.5 billion. Germany was the third biggest exporting country to the Kingdom at SR47 billion, according to the report.
The volume of the exempted customs duties covering all kinds of exemptions amounted to SR7 billion in 2015 of which industrial and commercial exemptions stood at SR2 billion, a decrease of 20 percent compared to figures of last year, while exemptions of GCC factory products reached SR1.5 billion, the report said.
Jeddah Islamic Port (JIP) received the highest volume of imports valued at SR232 billion while exports through it reached SR8.21 billion.
King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam was the second biggest import receiver at SR6.13 billion while exports reached SR6.17 billion, the report said.
Five commodities capture 69% of Saudi imports in 2015
