Manufacturing drives RI's September exports: Trade Minister

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Trade Minister Budi Santoso stated that manufacturing sector is the main pillar of Indonesia’s export performance in September 2026 amid rising global demand for several manufactured products.

Santoso said in a statement here on Wednesday that Indonesia’s total exports in September 2026 reached US$27.59 billion, up 3.68 percent from August 2026 and 11.87 percent from September 2025.

Manufacturing exports grew 4.38 percent monthly, higher than the 2.37 percent growth in the mining and other sectors.

“This strengthening is consistently supported by the manufacturing sector, in line with the downstreaming program to increase exports of value-added products,” he said.

He explained that several manufacturing commodities posted significant export increases, including precious metals, jewelry, and gems, which jumped 116.33 percent, electrical machinery and equipment, up 19.91 percent, and rubber and rubber goods, up 14.87 percent.

The September export increase was driven by the non-oil and gas sector, which grew 3.98 percent, even though oil and gas exports fell 4.08 percent from the previous month.

By commodity, non-oil and gas exports were still dominated by animal or vegetable fats and oils at US$4.43 billion, mineral fuels at US$2.99 billion, and iron and steel at US$2.70 billion.

The manufacturing sector’s cumulative January-September 2026 exports reached US$182.83 billion, contributing 82.64 percent of national exports and growing 8.93 percent from the same period last year.

Overall, Indonesia’s exports in January-September 2026 reached US$221.23 billion, up 5.58 percent. The growth was mainly driven by non-oil and gas exports, which rose 6.30 percent to US$212.27 billion.

The three non-oil and gas commodities with the highest cumulative export growth were aluminum and aluminum goods at 104.88 percent, copper and copper goods at 57.49 percent, and nickel and nickel goods at 47.87 percent.

By main non-oil and gas export destination, China ranked first at US$54.17 billion, followed by the United States at US$25.39 billion and India at US$15 billion.

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Translator: Maria, Kenzu
Editor: Primayanti
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