The Republic of Singapore is an island nation and sovereign city-state in South-East Asia. Singapore is a busy trade center, attracting significant re-export activity with its trading partners.

Import

In 2022, Singapore imported $475.2 billion worth of goods from around the world. Compared to the same period in 2021, Singapore's total imports increased by 16.8% from US$406.9 billion.

Singapore's Top 10 Imports

1. Electrical machinery and equipment: US$154.7 billion (32.6% of total imports)

2. Mineral fuels including petroleum: US$105.2 billion (22.1%)

3. Machinery including computers: $65.4 billion (13.8%)

4. Gems, precious metals: $26.5 billion (5.6%)

5. Optical, technical, medical equipment: $15.7 billion (3.3%)

6. Organic chemicals: $10.6 billion (2.2%)

7. Plastics, Plastic Products: $8.5 billion (1.8%)

8. Aircraft, Spacecraft: $7.2 billion (1.5%)

9. Other chemicals: $5.6 billion (1.2%)

10. Pharmaceuticals: $5.2 billion (1.1%)

In 2022 in Singapore, imported aircraft and spacecraft is the fastest-growing top category, up 45.1% year-on-year. Another fastest-growing year-on-year category is fossil fuels, including petroleum (up 39.4% from 2021), driven by increased purchases of petroleum (crude and refined) as well as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Singapore's imports of gemstones and precious metals grew by 23% and imports of organic chemicals by 18.2%.

Looking at the finer HSN codes, Singapore importers spent the most on electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies (22.7% of Singapore's total imports), processed petroleum (13.1%), crude petroleum (7.1%), turbojet engines (3.7%), unwrought gold (again, 3.7%), telephony equipment including smartphones (2.7%), semiconductor manufacturing machinery ( 2.3%), computers including optical readers (2.1%), liquefied petroleum gas (1.6%), and then solar diodes and semiconductors (1.3%).

Major suppliers of imported products in Singapore

According to the latest Tendata iTrader data, Singapore imports are mainly supplied by exporters from the following countries: Mainland China (13.4% of Singapore's global total), Malaysia (13.2%), Taiwan (12.6%), the United States (10%), South Korea (5.5%), Japan (5.4%), Indonesia (3.7%), United Arab Emirates (3.1%), France (2.8%), Germany (2.5%), Thailand (2.4%) and Switzerland (2%).

Export

In 2022, $514.8 billion worth of products were exported globally. in 2021, Singapore's exports amounted to $457.7 billion, representing a 12.5% year-on-year increase in the total value of exports.

Singapore's top 10 exports

1. electrical machinery and equipment: $181 billion (35.2% of total exports)

2. Machinery including computers: US$75.1 billion (14.6%)

3. Mineral fuels including petroleum: $65.6 billion (12.7%)

4. Optical, technical, medical equipment: $23.2 billion (4.5%)

5. Gems, precious metals: $22.6 billion (4.4%)

6. plastics, plastic products: $15.6 billion (3%)

7. Organic chemicals: $13.9 billion (2.7%)

8. Perfumes, cosmetics: $10.2 billion (2%)

9. Pharmaceuticals: $9.8 billion (1.9%)

10. other chemicals: $7.7 billion (1.5%)

Mineral fuels, including petroleum, are the fastest-growing of the top 10 export categories in Singapore in 2022, growing by 42.7% from 2021 to 2022. Refined petroleum is the biggest driver of growth in Singapore's mineral fuels-related products. The second highest growth in export sales was in the machinery category, including computers, which grew by 8.6%. Singapore's electrical machinery and equipment shipments ranked third in terms of value growth, up 8.3 percent.

The largest decline among Singapore's top 10 export categories was pharmaceuticals, down -4.2% year-on-year.

Looking at the finer HSN codes, the top exports by value were as follows:

1. integrated circuits/micro assemblies

2. processed petroleum

3. semiconductor manufacturing machinery

4. Gold (unwrought)

5. turbojet engines

6. telephone equipment, including smart phones

7. Solar diodes/semiconductors

8. computers, optical readers

9. other food preparations

10. beauty/color cosmetics/skin care products

Singapore's Top Co-export Destination Countries

According to the latest Tendata iTrader data, exports from Singapore were mainly purchased by importers from the following countries: China (12.4% of total global exports), Hong Kong (11.2%), Malaysia (10%), USA (8.8%), Indonesia (7.2%), Taiwan (4.9%), South Korea (4.05%), Japan (4.04%), Thailand (3.4%), Vietnam (3.3%), Australia (3.2%) and India ( 2.7%).