Saudi Arabia's exports rise to 54 million tons in 2015

The volume of Saudi exports in 2015 surged to 54 million tons at a value of ($42 bln) SR158 billion, compared with 2014 when they amounted to 53m tons valued at SR194 billion.

Eisa Al-Eisa, a spokesman for the Saudi Customs, told Al Eqtisadiah that imports touched 83m tons in 2015 at a value of SR640 billion, as against 85m tons, valued at SR655 billion in 2014.

On the geographical distribution of Saudi’s imports, the spokesman explained that most of the imports come from China, the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, India, France and Italy.

He pointed out that the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s exports include polypropylene and polyethylene, citrine, ammonia, methanol, urea and hydrocarbon mixtures.

Al-Eisa explained there is a ban on imports of specific products from certain countries and these include certain types of meat, including beef and poultry species, as well as other products such as cosmetics.

In 2015, Saudi’s imports of meat reached nearly 182m kg compared with 178m kg in 2014, an increase of roughly SR3 billion.

Saudi Arabia’s imports of cosmetics exceeded SR2.3 billion at a volume of approximately 44.6m kg, double the size expected for the year.

This article first appeared in the Saudi Gazette on Jan. 14, 2016.