Japan’s exports climbed sharply last month, as a solidifying global recovery fueled the world’s appetite for cars, machinery and gadgets.
Exports jumped 45.3 percent from a year earlier to ¥5.13 trillion (US$57 billion), marking the third straight month of year-on-year increase, the finance ministry said yesterday.
Car shipments surged 117 percent, while electronic machinery exports climbed 46 percent. General machinery rose 31.5 percent.
The figures confirm that government stimulus efforts around the globe have helped spur demand for Japanese products and are underpinning the country’s recovery, but it is Asia in particular that is driving the world’s second-biggest economy, which now sends more than half its exports to the rest of the booming continent.
Asia-bound exports jumped 56 percent from a year earlier to ¥2.78 trillion, the Ministry of Finance’s monthly report showed. The figure reflects an expected slowdown from January, when shipments soared 68 percent. The Lunar New Year holidays fell last month, effectively removing one business week.
Shipments to China, Japan’s single biggest trading partner, rose nearly 48 percent.
The data also showed encouraging numbers from the US, Japan’s second-biggest overseas market. Although exports to the US had been lackluster, they shot up 50 percent to ¥837 billion. Car shipments more than doubled and electrical machinery exports rose 38 percent.
The US outlook is unclear, however, as Toyota Motor Corp faces ongoing questions about its quality and credibility following a series of massive recalls.
“This export recovery was a long time in coming, but with auto recalls in the US still a concern, we will be watching whether this recovery momentum can be sustained,” said Yuriko Tanaka, an economist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo.
Also clouding Japan’s prospects is a stagnant economy at home.
Exports to western Europe were up 20 percent and those to the Middle East rose 19 percent.
Imports climbed 29.5 percent to ¥4.48 trillion, resulting in a trade surplus of ¥651 billion.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS