In the third quarter of 2007, the value of domestic exports classified to the five major industries including textiles; wearing apparel; consumer electrical and electronic products; machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components; and chemicals and chemical products together accounted for 74% of Hong Kong's total domestic exports, according to statistics released November 6 by the Census and Statistics Department.
In the third quarter of 2007, the value of domestic exports classified to the consumer electrical and electronic products industry fell significantly by $3.4 billion or 50.7% to $3.3 billion compared with the same quarter in 2006, that to the machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components industry by $1.5 billion or 33.7% to $2.9 billion, that to the wearing apparel industry by $1.3 billion or 24.4% to $3.9 billion, and that to the textiles industry by $1.9 billion or 17.2% to $9.1 billion.
On the other hand, the value of domestic exports classified to the chemicals and chemical products industry increased by $0.1 billion or 3.4% over a year earlier to $2.7 billion.
As for other manufacturing industries, an increase was registered for the value of domestic exports classified to the basic metals and fabricated metal products industry, by $0.1 billion or 5.5% over a year earlier to $2.0 billion in the third quarter of 2007.
The above statistics of domestic exports classified by industrial origin are derived by re-grouping the merchandise domestic export items originally grouped under the external trade classification system according to the industries in which these merchandise items are normally produced. Transactions in gold and specie are not included.
The industrial classification used is the Hong Kong Standard Industrial Classification (HSIC). The HSIC is to be distinguished from the United Nations Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) used in the regular trade statistics reports. In comparison, the HSIC is more related to production processes whereas the SITC is more geared to end uses of products.
Caution should be taken when referring to these domestic export statistics classified by industrial origin. There may be several intermediate processing stages in the production of certain merchandise domestic export items.
In compiling the above statistics, the total value of such an item has however been wholly related to the industry in which the item is finally produced. The above domestic export statistics of a particular industry may include secondary products which are produced by establishments of other industries.
