5422.0 - International Merchandise Trade, Australia, Dec 2002  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 20/02/2003   
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MEDIA RELEASE

February 20, 2003
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
22/2003
Number of exporters grows to over 31,000

Australia’s 31,450 exporters sent $152 billion worth of goods and services to off-shore customers in 2001-02, according to special analysis released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. These figures do not include the hundreds of thousands of businesses which provide goods or services to tourists and overseas students while they are in Australia.

There were 209 businesses with goods exports of $100 million or more, accounting for almost 70% of Australia's goods exports last financial year. Approximately 4,400 businesses had exports valued at $1 million or more, totalling 95% of exports. Over half of the goods exporters (16,642) had exports valued between $10,000 and $100,000, representing just 0.5% of the value of goods exports.

The main goods exporting industries were, manufacturing (38% of goods by value), mining (31%) and wholesale trade (21%), accounting for $109 billion (90%) of goods exports in 2001-02. The industries with the largest number of goods exporters were wholesale trade (9,670), manufacturing (8,850) retail trade (3,030) and property and business services (2,615).

The mining industry had the highest average exports per business with its 495 exporters averaging $75 million worth of exports each. This was followed by the manufacturing industry averaging exports of $5 million per exporter. These estimates relate to the owner of the good at the time of export, not the producer of the good.

By state of production, there were 15,140 exporters of goods from New South Wales in 2001-02, followed by Victoria (12,250), Queensland (7,700), Western Australia (3,830), South Australia (2,970), Tasmania (575) and Northern Territory (400). This is the first time these figures have been estimated. Many businesses exported goods from more than one state.

The special article also includes estimates by size of business and the overlap between exporters and importers.

Further details can be found in International Merchandise Trade, Australia, December Quarter 2002 (cat. no. 5422.0).