That dollar metric results from a 79.1% rise from $7 billion five years earlier in 2018.
Year over year, the value of Mongolian exports accelerated by 35.8% from $9.2 billion during 2021.
The top 5 most valuable exports from Mongolia are copper ores or concentrates, coal including solid fuels made from coal, unwrought gold, iron ores or concentrates, then uncarded and uncombed animal hair. Collectively, that quintet of major Mongolian exported products accounted for 88.3% of overall revenues from Mongolia’s export sales. Such a high percentage indicates an intensely concentrated portfolio of exported goods.
Mongolia’s Major Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 99.6% of products exported from Mongolia were bought by importers in: mainland China (84.3% of the Mongolian total), Switzerland (8.2%), Singapore (2.8%), South Korea (2.0%), Russia (0.9%), Italy (0.7%), Germany (0.2%), Japan (0.12%), Hong Kong (0.1%), United Kingdom (0.1%), United States of America (0.08%) and Kazakhstan (0.06%).
From a continental perspective, 89.6% of Mongolia’s exports by value was delivered to fellow Asian countries while 10.3% was sold to importers in Europe.
Tinier percentages went to North America (0.1%), Africa (0.02%), Oceania (0.01%) mostly Australia, then Latin America’s Chile and Suriname only (0.0002%).
Given Mongolia’s population of 3.46 million people, its total $12.6 billion in 2022 exports translates to roughly $3,600 for every resident in the expansive East Asian country. That dollar metric exceeds the average $2,700 per capita one year earlier during 2021.
Mongolia’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Mongolian global shipments during 2022. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Mongolia.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$6.8 billion (53.9% of total exports)
- Ores, slag, ash: $3.7 billion (29.3%)
- Gems, precious metals: $1.1 billion (8.9%)
- Wool: $455.3 million (3.6%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $110.4 million (0.9%)
- Copper: $87 million (0.7%)
- Fruits, nuts: $82.1 million (0.7%)
- Aircraft, spacecraft: $47.2 million (0.4%)
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $42.4 million (0.3%)
- Meat: $35.1 million (0.3%)
Mongolia’s top 10 exports accounted for 98.9% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Mineral fuels including oil was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 121% from 2021 to 2022.
In second place for improving export sales was aircraft and spacecraft via a 103.8% advance.
Mongolia’s shipments of meat posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 77.9% compared to 2021.
The leading decliner among Mongolia’s top 10 export categories was for salt, sulphur, stone and cement, thanks to a -23.4% year-over-year drop.
The listed product categories are at the two-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level.
Drilling down to the more granular four-digit HTS codes, coal including solid fuels made from coal represent Mongolia’s most valuable exported product at 51.9% of the country’s total. In second place were copper ores and concentrates (21.8%) trailed by unwrought gold (8.8%), iron ores and concentrates: (3.1%), uncarded and uncombed animal hair (2.7%), zinc ores and concentrates (2.3%), crude oil (1.9%), precious metal ores and concentrates (0.9%), feldspar and leucite (also 0.9%), then wool and carded or combed animal hair (0.7%).
Products Creating Mongolia’s Largest Trade Surpluses
Mongolia achieved an overall $3.8 billion product trade surplus for 2022, expanding by 58.9% from $2.4 billion in black ink one year earlier in 2021.
The following types of Mongolian product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$4.8 billion (Up by 178% since 2021)
- Ores, slag, ash: $3.7 billion (Down by -14.5%)
- Gems, precious metals: $1.1 billion (Up by 8.5%)
- Wool: $450.7 million (Up by 42.5%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $99.7 million (Down by -28.5%)
- Copper: $83.9 million (Down by -3.4%)
- Fruits, nuts: $35.2 million (Down by -30.1%)
- Miscellaneous animal-origin products: $21.5 million (Up by 17.3%)
- Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: $11.3 million (Down by -51.7%)
- Oil seeds: $7 million (Reversing a -$4.9 million deficit)
Mongolia has highly positive net exports in the international trade particularly for coal and crude petroleum oil. In turn, these cashflows indicate Mongolia’s strong competitive advantages under the mineral fuels-related product category.
Products Causing Mongolia’s Worst Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Mongolia that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Mongolia’s goods trail Mongolian importer spending on foreign products.
- Vehicles: -US$1.3 billion (Up by 21.8% since 2021)
- Machinery including computers: -$767.4 million (Up by 1.9%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$473.1 million (Down by -1%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$395.9 million (Up by 44.2%)
- Iron, steel: -$335.9 million (Up by 42.5%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$211.2 million (Up by 46.8%)
- Miscellaneous food preparations: -$177.8 million (Up by 20.3%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$175.8 million (Down by -37.7%)
- Aircraft, spacecraft: -$161.7 million (Up by 858.9%)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: -$135.3 million (Up by 77.3%)
Mongolia has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the vehicles category, notably for cars, trucks, tractors and automotive parts or accessories. Those deficiencies point to Mongolia’s lack of a strong automobile manufacturing sector.
Mongolian Export Companies
Not one Mongolian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
According to trade portal Alibaba.com, the following are examples of Mongolian export companies. Major products for each business are shown within brackets.
- Dornod Gazar LLC (acid-grade fluorspar)
- Khaadin Ger LLC (customized huts, furniture)
- Mogol Noos LLC (camel wool, yarn)
- Monom Consulting LLC (carpets)
- TESO LLC (non-dairy cream, noodles)
- Uguuj Shim LLC (camel wool)
- Wocom Group LLC (beef bone marrow)
Wikipedia also lists entities from Mongolia that are either directly involved in or related participants in international trade, including financial and transportation players. Selected examples are shown below.
- Bank of Mongolia (central bank)
- MIAT Mongolian Airlines (international airliner)
- Tavan Bogd Group (business conglomerate)
- UFC Group (food, beverages)
In macroeconomic terms, Mongolia’s total exported goods represent 26% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2022 ($48.4 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 26% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2022 compares to 21.6% for 2021. Those metrics suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Mongolia’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Mongolia’s unemployment rate averaged 7.29% for 2022, down from an average 8.1% in 2021 per statistics from the International Monetary Fund.
Mongolia’s capital city is Ulaanbaatar.
See also China’s Top Trading Partners, Switzerland’s Top Trading Partners, Singapore’s Top Trading Partners,South Korea’s Top Trading Partners and Russia’s Top Trading Partners
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook East & Southeast Asia: Mongolia. Accessed on June 6, 2023
FlagPictures.org, Flag of Mongolia. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Forbes 2018 Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Foreign Trade , United States Census Bureau. Accessed on June 6, 2023
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on June 6, 2023
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Mongolia. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Wikipedia, Mongolia. Accessed on June 6, 2023
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on June 6, 2023
WorldOMeter, Mongolia Population. Accessed on June 6, 2023
