WA’S contribution to Australia’s export trade has strengthened according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
While Australian exports fell 4 per cent during the March quarter WA exports climbed 10 per cent to $6.6 billion.
WA’s share of Australian exports have climbed above the 24 per cent achieved during the December quarter to 27.6 per cent in the March quarter.
However, the sharp increase in exports was not enough to lift total Australian exports from the December quarter level.
Victoria, the second largest exporter, experienced a 12 per cent drop in exports, Queensland exports fell 13 per cent, NSW fell 5 per cent while South Australian exports fell 14 per cent.
At the same time, WA’s share of imports fell from 9 per cent in the December quarter to 8.3 per cent in the March quarter.
WA’s imports were worth only $2.2 billion, giving the State a $4.4 billion trade surplus.
Other States to post a small surplus were South Australia and Queensland.
NSW has a trade deficit of more than $7 billion while Victoria showed a deficit of $3 billion.
Australia’s trade surplus with Japan increased by 15 per cent to $1.4 billion, while the Republic of Korea surplus went up 81 per cent to $1.1 billion.
The deficit with the US fell 3 per cent to $3.5 billion while the deficit with Germany was down 6 per cent to 41.1 billion.
In terms of commodities, crude petroleum oil exports increased by 57 per cent to $1.5 billion during the quarter as producers capitalised on high oil prices.
Gold exports increased 8 per cent to $1.3 billion while aluminium exports were up 12 per cent to just over $1 billion.
Passenger motor vehicle imports were down 5 per cent to $1.5 billion.
