October 15, 2014. The foreign trade turnover in Ural Federal District came to $28.8bn in January-August 2014, the press service of Ural Customs Administration reports.

92.8% of all the traded goods were imported to or exported from the countries of the far abroad, while 7.2% were imported to or exported from the CIS member states. Imports came to 16.5% of the total foreign trade turnover, 83.5% of all the goods were exported.

At the same time, the district’s trade turnover dropped by 41.8% in the eight months of 2014 compared with a year earlier; the freight turnover decreased by 49.3% and the number of the foreign economic activity agents went down by 3.2%. The share of foreign trade turnover involving the countries of the far abroad declined by 3.3%, whereas that involving the CIS member states went up by 3.3%.

The increase in the foreign trade turnover involving the CIS member states was due to increased export to Azerbaijan (up 81.6%); at the same time, the share of goods imported from Ukraine declined by 29.1%.

Among Ural Federal District’s top partners in January-August 2014 were the Netherlands (15.8% of the total foreign trade turnover), Germany (11%), Poland (7.3%), Italy (6.8%), the U.S. (6.5%), China (5.6%), Japan (5.2%), Korea (3.5%), Belgium (3.4%), and Finland (3%).

Ural Federal District mainly exports mineral stock (65.7% of the total export volume), over a half of which pertains to crude oil and mineral products, metals and metal goods (21.6%), machines, equipment, and vehicles (4.6%).