Quarterly Survey of Overseas Subsidiaries
4. Trade Transactions
Although the domestic parent companies slightly decreased their exports to their overseas subsidiaries by 3.4% compared to the previous quarter, their imports from their overseas subsidiaries drastically increased by 10.0%. The increase in imports from the overseas subsidiaries surpassed the corresponding increase in imports from other sources.
(1) Exports and imports
The total amount of exports achieved by domestically-based parent companies amounted to 9 trillion 259.3 billion yen, which was an increase of 5.6% over the previous quarter and surpassed the growth rate in sales. By category, eleven categories such as electrical machinery registered increases, while the two categories of textiles and metals lost percentage points.
The total amount of imports increased by 3.6%, registering 2.1101 trillion yen. By business category, nine categories represented by non-ferrous metals increased their imports, while four categories such as chemicals decreased their imports.
The outlook for exports and imports in the October-December quarter predicted growth both in exports and in imports on the basis of DI indices, namely 9.8 points for exports (minus 15.5 points compared to the previous quarter) and 9.4 points for imports (minus 13.4 points compared to the previous quarter). However, both figures worsened in comparison with previous data. By category, seven categories represented by transportation equipment foresaw a worsened climate for exports, while eleven categories such as transportation equipment followed the suit for imports.
(2) Inter-company trade transactions between parent companies and their overseas subsidiaries
The total exports made by the domestically-based parent companies to their overseas subsidiaries increased by 3.4% over the previous quarter, registering 3.9601 trillion yen. The composition ratio of exports in the total exports of the parent companies declined by 0.9% from the previous level of 43.7% to 42.8%.
The total amount of imports of the domestic parent companies from their overseas subsidiaries rose by 10% over the previous quarter, registering 825.8 billion yen. The increased amount of 75 billion yen slightly surpassed the corresponding increased amount of 73.2 billion yen in total imports. Incidentally, the ratio of imports by the domestic parent companies from their overseas subsidiaries in the total imports of parent companies rose by 2.2% from the previous figure of 36.9% to the current figure of 39.1%.
The balance of trade in exports and imports between the domestic parent companies and the overseas subsidiaries yielded a surplus of 3 trillion 134.3 billion yen in favor of exports, which was an increase of 1.8% over the previous quarter. By business category, the surplus was overwhelmingly large in the two categories of electrical machinery and transportation equipment, accounting for a whopping 90.3% of the total export surplus generated.
