Quarterly Survey of Overseas Subsidiaries

4.Trade Transactions

(1) Exports and imports

Total export value for the domestic parent companies was 9.1767 trillion yen, a rise of 4.4% on the same quarter of the previous year. These export sales helped alleviate the drop in the total figure caused by weak domestic sales, as had been the case in the previous semester. Looking at the figures by industry, exports were up in 11 of the industrial categories, the two exceptions being textiles and ceramics, stone & clay.

Total import value for the domestic parent companies was 2.0550 trillion yen, a 4.9% fall on the same quarter of the previous year. Looking at the figures by industrial category, imports were down in 5 categories, including the others category and industrial machinery.

Looking at predictions for the July-December of 1998 by relative DI, exports were at -1.1 points (-7.5 to -8.6) and imports were at -2.3 points (-11.5 to -13.8), indicating that for both exports and imports the share of companies predicting decreases is on the rise. Looking at the figures by industrial classification, exports were down for 6 categories including electrical machinery, while imports were down for 5 industries also including electrical machinery.

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

Total exports from domestic parent corporations to their overseas subsidiaries was 4.4071 trillion yen, a 14.9% rise on the same quarter of the previous year. The share of such exports in total exports by the domestic parent companies was 48.0%, 4.4 percentage points up on the same quarter of the previous year.

Total imports from overseas subsidiaries moved inversely to total imports made by the parent companies, recording a 4.4% increase to reach 706.2 billion yen.

The share of imports from overseas subsidiaries in total imports by the domestic parent companies was 34.4%, a 3.1 percentage point increase on the same quarter of the previous year.

The balance of trade between parent companies and overseas subsidiaries was 3.7009 trillion yen (exports minus imports), a 17.1% increase on the same term of the previous year. Looking at the figures by industry, the excess was large in transport machinery and electrical machinery, with those to categories alone accounting for 85.5% of the export surplus.