Quarterly Survey of Overseas Subsidiaries

4. Trade Transactions

(1) Exports and imports

• Combined exports of Parent companies increased by 7.1% from the same quarter a year ago to 9.6584 trillion yen, shoring up the slumping domestic sales. Exports grew in eleven industries except Food and Tobacco, and Ceramic, Stone and Clay Products.
• Combined imports decreased by 3.6% from the same quarter a year ago to 2.1662 trillion yen. Imports fell in four industries including Chemicals.
• The percentage of Parent companies anticipating increased exports or imports in the 1998 April-June quarter fell, with the DI for exports dropping by 6.5 points (-0.8 to -7.3), and that for imports by 10.9 points (-0.2 to -11.1) from the preceding quarter. Exports fell in seven industries and imports in nine, with Transport Machinery included in both.

(2) Inter-company trade transactions between Parent companies and their Overseas subsidiaries

• Combined exports by Parent companies to their Overseas subsidiaries grew by 15.7% from the same quarter in the preceding year to 4.3884 trillion yen, accounting for 45.4% of their total exports, or 3.3 points higher than a year ago.
• While imports by Parent companies fell, combined imports from their Overseas subsidiaries rose by 7.0% from the same quarter a year ago to 716.8 billion yen.

The ratio of imports from Overseas subsidiaries to total imports by Parent companies stood at 33.1%, 3.3 points higher than a year ago.

• In in-house trading with Overseas subsidiaries, exports by Parent companies exceeded imports by 3.6717 trillion yen, which was 17.5% larger than the excess of exports over imports in the previous year. The export excess was comparatively larger in the Electrical Machinery and Transport Machinery industries, which together accounted for 87.4% of the total export excess.