PETALING JAYA: Malaysia and the United States have maintained a strong trading relationship despite uncertainties in the global trading landscape, according to Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin.

He said Malaysia’s trade with the United States increased by 30% to RM325.2 billion in 2024.

Exports and imports grew by 23.3% and 42.1% to RM198.9 billion and RM126.3 billion, respectively.

“The positive export growth reflects the increased demand for Malaysian exports to the United States in 2024, Mohd Uzir said in a statement today after releasing the Malaysia’s Trade Statistics Review (MTSR) on export performance to the United States for 2024.

“MTSR 2025 analyses Malaysia’s trade performance with the United State, across five main product categories: electrical and electronic (E&E), optical and scientific equipment, machinery, equipment and appliances, rubber and wood,” he added.

He said E&E products remained the main pillar of Malaysia-US trade, contributing 60.4% of total export value in 2024. Semiconductors were the largest contributor (46.8%), followed by telecommunication equipment, sound recording and reproducing equipment (19.4%), electrical machinery, apparatus, appliances and parts (17%) and office machines and automatic data processing equipment (16.9%).

Malaysia’s exports of optical and scientific equipment to the US reached the highest value at RM12.9 billion, an increase of 14.3% in 2024, Mohd Uzir said, adding that Malaysia’s export contribution to the US was the highest compared to other countries, accounting for 21.8%.

He added that machinery, equipment and parts were among Malaysia’s top exports to the US in 2024, contributing 12.7% of Malaysia’s total exports of these products.

The value increased by 33.6% to RM8.8 billion in 2024 from RM6.6 billion in the previous year.

Rubber products show a strong upward trend in Malaysia’s main export position to the US. The highest export value was recorded in 2021 at RM22.6 billion, driven largely by Covid-19 pandemic‑related demand.

In terms of the time series, exports declined in 2022 and 2023 before rising again to RM7.4 billion in 2024.

Malaysia has transitioned from primarily exporting raw rubber to becoming a recognised global hub for high‑value downstream products, especially rubber gloves and engineering industry goods.

Malaysia’s wood products maintained a stable export performance to the US during the period from 2015 to 2021.

This growth peaked in 2021, reaching a record high of RM7.6 billion. Although exports declined to RM5.4 billion in 2023, they rebounded in 2024 to RM6 billion. The long-term trend remains positive, supported by consistent growth from RM2.9 billion in 2015 to over RM7 billion during the 2020 to 2022 period.

Malaysia, for the first time, ranked as number one globally in the biennial Open Data Inventory 2024/25 report released by Open Data Watch , surpassing 197 other countries. This achievement marks a significant leap from its 67th position in the 2022/23 assessment.