Export growth was brought by hard work and favorable times

Photo: Mailis Ollino / Pärnu Postimees

According to the Statistical Office, the export of goods increased 15 percent in this May over year. The most exported items were electrical equipment, timber and wooden products and mineral products.

Estonia’s goods are mainly in demand in neighboring countries. The largest share was exported to Finland in May (16 percent of total export), followed by Sweden (14 percent) and Latvia (nine percent).

This was asserted by Lembit Lump, supervisory board chairman of the company Kodumajad; he modestly said that they had been doing well. “Regarding last year’s sales revenue compared with that of the year before last, the increase has been 16 or even 17 percent. There has been increase, sure enough.”

The main business of Kodumajad is the designing and construction of high quality timber framework buildings using factory-produced elements. The enterprise is primarily export-oriented. They exported 24 million euros worth of timber and timber products this May.

Lump cites as the reasons of growth the firm’s hard work and the active markets. “You just have to take advantage of the situation, there is no miracle”, he said. Kodumajad exported the most to Norway and Sweden both last year and this year.

Although these two countries have been the main markets of the wooden house manufacturer for a long time, the firm has ambition to reach elsewhere. “But you cannot do everything at once. We are presently making efforts to increase our share of the Swedish market. Once we achieve our targets there, we may look elsewhere to hedge our bets, maybe Finland or Denmark”, Lump said.

Konesko, a manufacturer of electric motors, fuse boxes and other electrical equipment, also reported export growth. Unlike Kodumajad, the growth of Konesko is not the result of efficient sales work but higher demand of contract partners for their products.

“Our export growth remains somewhere at ten percent. We hardly sell anything at home, 90 percent is exported”, said Mihkel Puumets, head of Konesko’s motor plant. More than 60 percent of Konesko’s output goes to Finland, but it also exports to other countries all over the world, for example China, the USA, Germany and Italy. 

According to the Statistical Office, the export of electrical equipment to Germany has increased especially. For example, 43 million euros worth of communication equipment was exported, yet the sum is somewhat lower than in May 2016.

The state-owned energy company Eesti Energia handles the sale of the category of export products, which increased the most in May – mineral products. The company says that the market situation is favorable at present.

Andri Avila, board member of the firm, said that the oil shale industry has been working almost at maximum capacity since last July. “The prices in the energy market have favored production and our oil production facilities and power stations are at full capacity”, he said.

Although Eesti Energia cannot reveal precise information before the end of the month, one can claim, comparing the first quarter of 2017 with that of 2016 that both electricity and oil production have significantly increased.

According to the Statistical Office, the most mineral products (including motor fuel) were exported to Canada and Saudi Arabia (including shale oil). Mineral products worth 53 million euros were exported from Estonia in May.

The share of Estonian-produced goods amounted to 72 percent of total export in May. The export of Estonian-origin goods increased 12 percent in May and the export of goods imported to Estonia from other countries, 25 percent. The growth of export of Estonian-origin goods was influenced the most by the increasing export of mineral products (shale oil for heating, electric energy), timber and timber products (including coniferous timber, wooden pellets), agricultural products and food (including grain)  and various manufactured goods (including furniture and wooden houses).

The volume index of foreign trade export increased in May 2017 compared with last year’s same period by one percent and the import volume index grew by 11 percent.