20 OCT 2026 — Malaysia shipped RM215.1 billion of goods abroad in September, the first month its exports have ever passed RM200 billion. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said on 19 October that exports were 54.5 per cent higher than a year earlier, and the trade ministry said that was the fastest growth since April 2021. Electrical and electronic products supplied most of the gain.
The figures are provisional. DOSM will publish the full monthly report on 28 October, and the ministry notes that September data may be revised in later issues.
What the September figures show
Total trade for the month came to RM396.5 billion, against RM258.1 billion a year earlier, a gain of 53.7 per cent, according to the DOSM media release. Imports reached RM181.4 billion, a rise of 52.7 per cent. That left a trade surplus of RM33.7 billion, 64.9 per cent bigger than a year before and the 77th month in a row that Malaysia has sold more than it bought, a run that began in May 2020.
Compared with August, exports climbed 12.6 per cent and imports 11.3 per cent. On a seasonally adjusted basis, DOSM put the rise in exports at 10.0 per cent.
Both halves of the export figure grew at a similar pace. Domestic exports, 75.3 per cent of the total, reached RM162.0 billion (up 54.7 per cent), and re-exports RM53.1 billion (up 53.7 per cent), the statistics department said on its release page.
Electronics did most of the work
Electrical and electronic (E&E) goods brought in RM110.23 billion in September, a little over half of everything Malaysia exported, and 69.2 per cent more than in September 2025. That one category added RM45.1 billion to the year-on-year total. The next largest contributor was a category DOSM calls other manufactures, which added RM14.7 billion and grew 263.3 per cent. Petroleum products, optical and scientific equipment, and machinery each added between RM2.4 billion and RM3.0 billion.
The Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) offered the explanation in its own statement. Describing the first nine months of the year, it said E&E exports grew on "sustained global demand for semiconductors, rising investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and wider adoption of digital technologies". That is the ministry's reading of the cycle; the statistics themselves count shipments by product and partner, and do not say what the chips were bought for.
Not every sector grew. Agricultural exports fell 5.7 per cent to RM9.03 billion in September, MITI said, because Malaysia sold a smaller quantity of palm oil and palm oil-based products. Mining exports, led by liquefied natural gas and crude petroleum, reached a record RM11.43 billion.
America and Taiwan led demand
The United States was the largest single source of extra demand. Exports there rose by RM18.0 billion, or 89.9 per cent, reaching RM38.03 billion, the highest yet. Shipments to Taiwan more than doubled, up 175.2 per cent to RM21.45 billion, the most Malaysia has ever sold there in a month.
Closer to home, exports to ASEAN hit a record RM59.55 billion, 46.2 per cent more than a year earlier. Singapore took RM35.45 billion of that, up 50.4 per cent and its highest monthly value so far. Thailand and Viet Nam also grew by more than half. Exports to China grew more slowly, by 22.1 per cent to RM20.39 billion, and fell 1.5 per cent from August.
Imports rose almost as fast
The import bill tells a similar story from the other side. E&E imports rose by RM42.2 billion, or 92.3 per cent, according to DOSM's tables, and imports of intermediate goods, the parts and components that factories assemble, rose 69.6 per cent to RM92.1 billion. Imports from China grew by RM21.1 billion, more than from any other partner, followed by Singapore at RM10.9 billion and South Korea at RM9.1 billion.
Intermediate goods made up 50.8 per cent of everything Malaysia imported in September. Capital goods, the machinery that firms install, rose a slower 20.9 per cent to RM22.3 billion.
Nine months and the full-year forecast
From January to September, total trade reached RM2.910 trillion, up 30.1 per cent. Exports rose 34.0 per cent and imports 25.7 per cent, and the surplus more than doubled to RM232.38 billion. MITI said all four measures were the highest ever recorded for that period. For the third quarter alone, exports grew 46.0 per cent.
The ministry cited the Ministry of Finance's Economic Outlook 2027, which projects total trade growth of 27.2 per cent for 2026, with exports up 31.0 per cent. With nine months counted, exports are running ahead of that forecast.
What the ministry says could go wrong
MITI's statement ended on risks. It named changes in the trade policies of major economies and geopolitical tension, singling out the conflicts in West Asia, which it said could disrupt trade flows and push up costs. Xinhua, which led its report with the 44.7 per cent rise in third-quarter trade, also carried that warning.
The concentration question remains. When half of a country's exports sit in one product group, and the two largest increases come from two markets, a turn in the semiconductor cycle hits the whole trade account at once. The October figures, due on 20 November, will show whether September was a peak or a new level.
