Fuels drove Colombian exports in September, which rose 26%

Colombian exports in September totaled US$4.8 billion free on board (FOB), an increase of 26% compared to the same month last year.

On Tuesday, November 1, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) reported that the fuels segment boost explained the increase.

In September, the United States was the main destination of Colombian exports, with a 24.8% share in the total FOB value exported, followed by Panama, the Netherlands, Brazil, Israel, Turkey, and Mexico.

Foreign sales of fuels and extractive industry products totaled US$2.7 billion FOB in September, 40% more than in the same period last year.

According to the DANE, this performance was mainly explained by the increase in sales of hard coal, coke, and briquettes (115.1%), which contributed 35.1 percentage points to the variation of the group.

According to the report, these results show that exports of fuels and extractive industry products accounted for 55.6% of the total FOB value of exports.

In September, 14.1 million barrels of crude oil were exported, representing a drop of 1.8% compared to the same month in 2021.

On the other hand, manufacturing contributed 19.7%, while the agricultural products, food, and beverages division with 19.8%, and other sectors with 4.9%.

Year-to-date through September, Colombian exports represented US$43.8 billion FOB, an increase of 51.7% over the same period in 2021.

Between last January-September, foreign sales of fuels and extractive industry products totaled US$24.8 billion FOB, an 84.9% increase compared to the same period in 2021.

“This behavior was mainly due to the growth in external sales of petroleum, petroleum products, and related products (60.8%), which contributed 42.5 percentage points to the variation of the group,” the DANE indicated.

By destinations, between January and September of this year, the United States was also the primary market for Colombian exports, with a 26% share in the total value, followed by Panama, the Netherlands, Turkey, India, Brazil, and China.

With information from Bloomberg