ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The imports of intermediate/semi-finished goods and some kinds of machinery have depicted rising trend during the first half of 2002-03, according to foreign trade data collected by the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

Constituting a small fraction of total imports (over $5.78 billion or Rs341.97 billion) though, this category of imports reflects some improvement in the manufacturing activity.

The imports of textile group, which includes synthetic fibre and artificial silk yarn, surged by 30.58 per cent, increasing their share in total import bill to 1.97%, up 0.18% from the corresponding period of previous year.

But included in the import bill of Rs113.95 million of this group is the item “worn clothing”. Its import shot up by 39.95% to $20 million (Rs1.2 billion) during the period under review.

The imports of metal group increased by 2.29% to $218.15 million. It includes iron and steel scrap ($21.59 million), iron and steel ($173.25 million) and aluminium wrought & worked ($23.30 million).

In the miscellaneous group ($145.891 million) recorded an increase of 9.13% in imports in terms of dollars value. It includes rubber crude and wood & cork whose imports went up by 3.52% and 158.84%, respectively. But some other items such as paper & paper board and jute in this group declined in imports by 16.16% and 3.92%, respectively.

This group also includes rubber tyres and tubes ($37.01 million). The imports in this group surged by 22.28%.

Plastic materials imports increased by 20.84%, quantity-wise, raising their import bill to $194.76 million.

The machinery group imports ($1.27bn), constituting over one-third of total import bill, marked a substantial increase of 33.96% during the period review. Major imports in this group were power generating machinery ($123.42 million), textile machinery ($225.31 million), road motor vehicles ($205.45m), office machines ($93.78 million) etc.

The main contributors to $323 million rise in import bill of machinery group were roadmotor vehicles, power generating machinery, electrical machinery etc. According to the FBS data, the country also spent $14.69 million on import of agricultural machinery.

Petroleum products again constituted the largest chunk constituting over one-fourth of total import bill. In this group, petroleum products imports surged by 7.97% in dollars. Reflecting rise in import price of this group, the quantitative import of petroleum products and petroleum crude declined by 0.54% and 5.62%, respectively. But their import bill in dollars registered an increase of 12.20% and 3.33%, respectively.

The country imported 3,497,189 tons of crude oil at a cost of $664.53 million — 11.48% of total import bill. This is 1.71% less than during the corresponding period of previous year.

The FBS data also indicates rise in unit price of fertilizers. The quantity of fertilizer imported during July-December, 2002, was a little over one million tons, 3.04% more than during the same period of 2001. But the price paid for it ($185 million) was 31.07% more.

FOOD GROUP: Imports of this group amounted to 475.71 million — 28.15% more than during corresponding period of previous year. It thus constituted 8.22% of total import bill, as against 7.63% during July-December 2001.