Imports included petroleum, oil, lubricants, cement, garment, food items, construction materials, beverages, and others. This was based on the 2009 report from the Port of Saipan, Commonwealth Ports Authority submitted to the CNMI Department of Commerce.
The CNMI’s imports have been steadily declining since 2005, from a total of 605,500 tons to 540,200 in 2006. The figures went down to 439,440 tons in 2007.
Last year, the CNMI imported a total of 105,190 tons of petroleum, oil and lubricants.
The category “others” followed with 54,720 tons, and this included food, construction materials and beverages. Imports for food items ranked third, with a total of 30,660 tons last year.
Imports for beverages ranked fourth, with a total of 13,390 tons, followed by cement, which posted a total of 8,720 tons. Imports for construction materials followed with a total of 8,110 tons.
Garments import was at the bottom of the list, with only .09 ton for the whole year.
On a quarterly basis, last year’s second quarter imports posted the highest, with 89,210 tons for all categories. The imports for the first quarter of 2009 posted only 79,340 tons while the third quarter imports posted 22,900 tons. The figure went up to 29,420 tons for the last quarter of last year.
From 2005 to 2009, petroleum, oil and lubricants were the CNMI’s top import products.
The CNMI’s exports plummeted from $650.8 million value in 2005 for the garment industry to only $3.14 million for the first quarter of 2009. The export values were estimated based on the garment certification fee collection of the Department of Finance. The second quarter exports reflected zero figures after all the garment factories closed down last year.
