In the period from January to October, Montenegro achieved exports of 576 million euros, which is a 70% increase compared to the same ten months in the last pre-crisis year of 2019.
When looking at the structure of exports, slightly more than half was achieved with only two products – the export of aluminum worth 149 million euros and electricity for 140 million euros.
It Is interesting that the current export of aluminum is almost three times more valuable than in the same period in 2019, when it amounted to 52 million euros. At the end of last year, due to the increase in electricity prices, the aluminum plant shut down most of its production, that is, there are only 13 cells left for the production of aluminum, as well as the newly opened facilities for the production of enriched aluminum alloys.
So the present Uniprom Aluminum Plant deals with the import of raw aluminum and its processing into alloys. Thus, in these ten months raw aluminum was imported for 99.5 million, and in the same period of 2019, this item was worth only 70,000 euros. The most raw aluminum was imported from Venezuela with 57.7 million, South Korea with 21.3 million and Kazakhstan with 13.3 million.
The most aluminum was exported to Switzerland 82.3 million euros, Luxembourg 29.3 million, Hong Kong 15 million and Italy 7.1 million.
And the export of electricity is almost three times higher than in the same period of 2019, when it was worth 49 million euros. However, for ten months of this year, the import of electricity was worth 193 million euros, that is, it was 43 million euros higher than the export in the same period. The import of electricity was now almost four times higher than in 2019, when it was worth 54 million euros.
The data show that In the period from January to April of this year, the export of electricity was worth 100 million euros, and the import was worth 37 million. At that time, Montenegro had a large surplus in electricity trade of 63 million euros, but after that a great drought followed, which increased imports by another 156 million euros.
There is a re-export of electricity through the territory of Montenegro, which is also included in these figures, but the data clearly show that the situation in terms of the trade balance of Montenegro and the profit of Elektroprivreda could have been significantly different had it not been for the record drought and the symbolic production of electricity from hydroelectric power plants from April to November.
Among other Montenegrin export items, the most important are wood products, which were exported for a total of 37.1 million euros. Of this, the most exported sawn timber (boards, beams…) worth 21.7 million euros, as well as pellets 12 million. The export of furniture and wooden parts amounted to a modest 1.9 million euros.
The export of medicines was worth 26.7 million euros, and they were sold in two countries – in Serbia for 26.2 million euros and in Bosnia and Herzegovina for half a million.
The export of meat products for these ten months amounted to EUR 16.8 million, of which EUR 14 million was exported to Serbia. Of the total export of meat products, dried meat accounts for 12.8 million.
Various ores (bauxite, lead, zinc…) were exported from Montenegro for 21 million. Of that, 13.2 million went to Poland, 5 million to China, 1.2 million euros to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Beverages were exported for ten million euros, of which wine for 6.3 million and beer for 2.8 million. The most beverages were exported to Serbia for four million, BiH for 1.7 million, to Kosovo for 1.2 million. Vegetables and fruits were exported for eight million euros.
Finished steel products were exported for 5.6 million euros, of which 1.4 million to Serbia and 1.1 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Montenegro exports significant amounts of metal waste, so it sold scrap copper for 5.7 million and scrap iron for 4.3 million.
Reexport participates in “exports” with 200 million
From the data on the export structure, it can be concluded that of the total official export of 576 million euros, about 200 million are not exports of domestic products but re-exports, that is, exports of previously imported or returned products.
In addition to exporting the already imported aluminum, Montenegro also exports machines, transport devices and apparatus worth 55 million euros, of which only the bearings for motor vehicles from the factory in Kotor are domestic for six million.
Thus, according to the papers, Montenegro also exports road vehicles for 11 million, industrial machines for 11 million, telephone sets for 3.5 million.For example, bodies for motor vehicles worth four million were exported to Germany.
Montenegro also “exported” oil derivatives for 23 million euros, of which 15.4 million to Slovenia. In addition to the list of over 200 countries and territories, 8.7 million euros worth of oil derivatives were exported under the item unknown, local media reports.
