Quarterly Survey of Overseas Subsidiaries

1. Turnover Inside/Outside Japan and Domestic Sales/Local Sales Overseas

The total sales of domestically-based parent companies amounted to 40.6458 trillion yen, registering an increase of 2.5% over the previous April-June quarter where sales declined by 9.0%. By category, 12 categories excluding electrical machinery increased sales, the industrial machinery category increased the sales remarkably.

On the other hand, the turnover of locally-based overseas subsidiaries owned by domestically-based parent companies in the current survey registered 8.3418 trillion yen (70.7 billion dollars), which was a 1.7% decline compared to the previous quarter. By category, the declined sales in the transportation equipment category had major repercussions on the overall sales performances and led to overall reductions thereby. By region, increased sales were witnessed only in NIES 3, China and other Asian countries.

Looking at the predicted business performances in the next October-December quarter, the sales of domestically-based parent companies were predictably reported to decline significantly, judging from the DI index of 33.4 points compared to the previous quarter and the corresponding index of 13.4 points for the coming quarter. Category-wise, it was forecast that sales in the next quarter would deteriorate in 11 business categories apart from wood and pulp and iron and steel.

In all the regions where locally-based overseas subsidiaries are located, the outlook for the sales in the next three-month period was predictably reported to worsen, judging from the DI index of 43.9 points compared to the previous quarter and the current DI index of 35.3 points for the next October-December quarter prediction. Category-wise, eight categories such as electrical machinery reported that their sales would fall in the next quarter. However, the transportation equipment category forecast an improvement of 3.8% over the previous quarter, the improvement in North America was predictably reported to be especially remarkable.

The total sales locally achieved by locally-based overseas subsidiaries in all regions worldwide (Note 2) reached 4.7623 trillion yen, which was, however, a decline of 1.2% compared to the previous quarter. The forecast on the sales in the coming October-December quarter was reported to worsen in all regions excluding Europe.

The overseas production ratio (Note 3) registered 20.5%, which was a 0.9% decline compared to the previous quarter. This was because while domestically-based parent companies increased their sales over the previous quarter, locally-based overseas subsidiaries decreased their sales.