Thailand's border trade with third countries increased by 41.4% year-on-year in March, surpassing 100 billion baht, driven by a substantial rise in electronic product imports, according to the Department of Foreign Trade (DFT).
Border trade with third countries refers to the exchange of goods between Thailand and the final destinations, utilising transit routes through neighbouring nations.
The trade value tallied 106 billion baht, a 41.4% increase year-on-year. Exports amounted to 48.5 billion baht, up 34.8%, and imports totalled 57.1 billion baht, a gain of 47.4%.
Trade with China posted the highest value at 50.5 billion baht, followed by Vietnam at 17.7 billion baht and Singapore at 17.1 billion baht.
Key exports included hard disk drives valued at 9.87 billion baht, phones and peripherals at 5.66 billion baht, and computers and peripherals at 2.96 billion baht.
In the first quarter, trade with third countries totalled 275 billion baht, a 35% increase. Exports tallied 138 billion baht, up 40%, and imports totalled 137 billion baht, rising 30.4%.
Arada Fuangtong, director-general of the DFT, said imports of key electronic products rose by 47.4%, including computer components such as assembled printed circuit boards and other automatic data processing machine parts at 9.61 billion baht, up 569%; radios, smartphones and TVs at 5.56 billion baht, a gain of 48.4%; and magnetic tapes and magnetic disks for computers at 5.21 billion baht, increasing 22.2%.
Imports from China expanded by 34.9%, from Singapore by 14.5%, and from Vietnam by 208.5%, according to the department.
In March, border trade with four neighbouring countries declined by 21.6% year-on-year to 72.7 billion baht. Exports amounted to 44.8 billion baht, a 19.8% decrease, and imports totalled 27.9 billion baht, down 24.3%.
Border trade with Malaysia recorded the highest value at 28.0 billion baht, up 3.1%.
In contrast, trade with Laos fell by 4.4% to 25.6 billion baht, trade with Myanmar declined by 7.4% to 17.1 billion, and border trade with Cambodia tallied zero.
In the first quarter, border trade with neighbouring countries fell by 22.7% to 203 billion baht. Exports totalled 119 billion baht, up 27.1%, while imports decreased by 20% to 84.7 billion baht.
For March, Thailand's total border trade, including trade with third countries, expanded by 6.5% to 178 billion baht. Exports amounted to 93.3 billion baht, while imports totalled 85.1 billion baht.
Trade rose by 2.5% to 479 billion baht in the first quarter, comprising exports of 257 billion baht and imports of 222 billion baht.
