The domestic export value of Hong Kong's major industries posted steep drops in the third quarter, revealed the latest statistics of the Census and Statistics Department on Thursday.

The six major industries are textiles, chemicals and chemical products, consumer electrical and electronic products, machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components, basic metals and fabricated metal products, and wearing apparel.

Those industries accounted for three fourths of the city's total domestic export value in the third quarter.

For wearing apparel, the domestic export value plunged 42.7 percent year on year to 2.3 billion HK dollars (US$297 million) and textiles dropped 37.5 percent from a year earlier to 5.7 billion HK dollars (US$736 million).

The domestic export value of consumer electrical and electronic products fell 24.6 percent to 2.5 billion HK dollars (US$323 million) and that for machinery, equipment, apparatus, parts and components declined 20 percent to 2.3 billion HK dollars (US$297 million).

The domestic export value of chemicals and chemical products, however, rose 15.3 percent to 3.1 billion HK dollars (US$400 million) and that for basic metals and fabricated metal products grew 14.3 percent to 2.3 billion HK dollars (US$297 million).

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2008)