Trucks and cars were a top import from four of New Zealand’s top five import markets in the year to June 2016 says Statistics New Zealand.
Vehicles, parts, and accessories, including more than 260,000 cars, accounted for 10% of New Zealand’s $67 billion of imports. This was the second-largest category of goods imports for the June 2016 year.
Vehicles were the country’s largest goods import from Japan, the European Union (EU), and Australia, and its third-largest from the US.
New Zealand also imported vehicles, parts and accessories from some smaller trading partners. In the June 2016 year, vehicles were its largest import from Thailand, its second-largest from Korea, and its fifth-largest import from Taiwan.
“Vehicle imports from Thailand have tripled since 2012, and we now import more cars from Thailand than from the US or Australia,” international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell says.
“While we still import cars from Japan and Europe, home to many large car brands, as they restructure their global operations many of our cars are rolling in from other countries. Thailand has become the ‘Detroit of the East’, with producers such as Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Mercedes shifting gear and opening factories there in recent years.”
Electronics from China top import category
New Zealand’s largest single import from one source in the June 2016 year was electrical machinery and equipment from China. It imported $2 billion worth of electronics from China in the June 2016 year.
“Historically, vehicles were our biggest goods imports, but since December 2015 we’ve imported more electronics from China than vehicles from either Japan or the EU,” Attewell says.
Trade shows annual surplus
New Zealand’s trade with the rest of the world was a $1.7 billion surplus for the June 2016 year. Total exports of goods and services were $70.9 billion, while total imports were $67.2 billion.
New Zealand recorded trade surpluses with 16 of its top 25 trading partners in the June 2016 year, including Australia, China, the US, and Japan.
