In the second quarter of 2007, the value of domestic exports classified to the five major industries of textiles; wearing apparel; chemicals and chemical products; and machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components together accounted for 70% of Hong Kong’s total domestic exports, according to statistics released August 7 by the Census and Statistics Department.

In the second quarter of 2007, the value of domestic exports classified to the wearing apparel industry fell significantly by $2.5 billion or 40.5% to $3.7 billion compared with the same quarter in 2006, that to the machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components industry by $1.6 billion or 36.8% to $2.7 billion, and that to the textiles industry by $2.4 billion or 27.6% to $6.3 billion.

On the other hand, the value of domestic exports classified to the chemicals and chemical products industry increased by $0.8 billion or 40.7% over a year earlier to $2.8 billion.

As for other manufacturing industries, a notable increase was registered for the value of domestic exports classified to the basic metals and fabricated metal products industry, by $0.7 billion or 43.3% over a year earlier to $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2007.

The above statistics of domestic exports classified by industrial origin are derived by re-grouping the merchandise domestic export items originally grouped under the external trade classification system according to the industries in which these merchandise items are normally produced. Transactions in gold and specie are not included.

The industrial classification used is the Hong Kong Standard Industrial Classification (HSIC). The HSIC is to be distinguished from the United Nations Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) used in the regular trade statistics reports. In comparison, the HSIC is more related to production processes whereas the SITC is more geared to end uses of products.

Caution should be taken when referring to these domestic export statistics classified by industrial origin. There may be several intermediate processing stages in the production of certain merchandise domestic export items.

In compiling the above statistics, the total value of such an item has however been wholly related to the industry in which the item is finally produced. The above domestic export statistics of a particular industry may include secondary products which are produced by establishments of other industries.