The Central Statistics Agency (Badan Pusat Statistik or BPS) has reported that the export value of South Sulawesi Province from January to September 2023 reached USD 1,682.17 million, resulting in a surplus of USD 811.44 million with a total import value of USD 870.73 million, or equivalent to more than IDR 12.5 trillion. "We have several leading commodities in South Sulawesi, such as nickel. Export demand remains stable every month, as do other commodities," said Aryanto, the Head of BPS South Sulawesi, in Makassar on Monday. To date, he added, South Sulawesi continues to export several leading commodities and also imports other essential goods. However, the value of exports is consistently higher than the import transactions every month, allowing for a continuous surplus. The main commodities exported each month are nickel, contributing 47.89%; iron and steel (23.58%); oilseeds (7.03%); resin, rubber, and damar (5.57%), as well as fish and shrimp contributing 5.20%. Aryanto noted that nickel is the largest export commodity from South Sulawesi from January to September 2023, with a value of USD 937.90 million, followed by iron and steel with USD 302.60 million.
Additionally, oilseeds amounted to USD 164.65 million, resin, rubber, and damar reached USD 60.94 million, and fish and shrimp contributed USD 55.43 million. Aryanto mentioned that these ten leading commodities from South Sulawesi accounted for USD 1,653.67 million, which is 98.85% of the trade balance. The remaining 1.15% or USD 28.50 million came from other trade activities. As for the top five export destinations of South Sulawesi from January to September 2023, Japan was the largest with a value of USD 968.67 million, representing about 50.12%. It was followed by China with a value of USD 564.13 million (37.15%). Australia had a value of USD 21.48 million (0.32%); Taiwan with USD 16.65 million (0.68%), and the United States with a value of USD 14.95 million (1.12%) of the total export value from South Sulawesi.
