In the first eight months of 2017, Iron and Steel Plant in Smederevo has delivered 82, 3 % more goods to the foreign market than in the same period of the previous year.
The total foreign trade of Serbia from January to the end of September 2017 reached 25, 4 billion euros, which is 13, 3 % more than in the same period of the previous year, according to state statistics. Export is increased by 13, 4 % which is 11, 25 billion euros, and import by 13, 1 %, or 14, 14 billion euros. The foreign trade deficit in the nine months of this year amounted to 2,89 billion euros, which is 11, 8 % more than in the same period last year.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the biggest exporter since the beginning of the year is still “Fiat”, in August it was HBIS group, that is, “Iron and Steel Plant Smederevo”. In the first eight months of 2017, exports of Smederevo ironworks were higher by 82, 3% compared to the same period of the previous year.
The foreign trade of goods in the past five years has achieved significant positive changes. This year’s nine-month export of goods of 11, 25 billion euros is about 76 % higher than in the same period of 2012, when it was worth 6, 39 billion euros.
Nonetheless, deficit in commodity exchange with the world for nine months of this year is 2, 89 billion euros, which is 1, 48 billion euros lower than from the beginning of January to the end of September 2012, when it amounted to 4, 37 billion euros.
Changes for the better in Serbian foreign trade started in the beginning of autumn of 2012, when the production of Fiat 500-L was launched in a car factory “Fiat Serbia” in Kragujevac. Increased exports of car parts from several new factories raised by foreign companies and the start of fuel exports from the refurbished NIS refinery in Pancevo, contributed to this.
It can be said with certainty that the value of commodity exports in 2017 will exceed one-third of the value of this year’s gross domestic product, which unfortunately economists consider to be insufficient. They claim that there will be no stable economic growth for Serbia if it does not export at least half of the annual value of everything created.
– The value of exports relative to the gross domestic product is still low – said Milojko Arsic, professor at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics – Export, along with investments, should be the main initiator of economic growth in the coming years, which is why economic policies and reforms should support their growth.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the total export value of the 15 largest exporters amounted to 2, 7 billion euros in the period of January to August.
In the observed period, Fiat exported 642, 4 million euros worth of exports, followed by HBIS group with 377, 6 million, and Pirot “Tigar” with 24, 2 million euros. The oil industry of Serbia is in the fourth position with the export of 197,1 million euros, in the fifth place, Tetra Pak with 149, 3 million euros, ahead of HIP Petrohemija, which sold their goods for 130,1 million euros.
In the seventh place is “Boš” with a placement of 118, 9 million euros, eighth place holds “Leoni” from Prokuplje, whose exports worth 116, 1 million euros, followed by “MK Group”, “Hemofarm” and “Victoria Group”. In the twelfth place is “Grundfos”, followed by “Gorenje”, “Jura”, and RTB “Bor” who also secured their place among the 15 largest exporters due to the currently high price of copper on the world market.
In the last seven to eight years, there is a visible change in exports structure. According to Jasmina Crnomarkovic, from the Department of Statistics for Foreign Trade of the Republic Institute for Statistics, in the total value of exports, shares of reproductive products in the previous three years have decreased from 65% in 2008 to around 53%. The share of consumer goods increased from 26% in 2008 to 40% in the last three years. The share of equipment in exports is not significantly changed, and it is around eight to nine percent. Certainly, the export of cars contributed most to this.
