News
In the first half of fiscal 2012 （April-September）, 46,966,000 revenue tons of international multimodal transport cargoes were transported to and from Japan by Japan International Freight Forwarders Association （JIFFA） members, according to statistics unveiled by the association.
The total throughput increased 5.6% from a year earlier, establishing a new record for the fifth consecutive six-month term.
Exports from Japan were sluggish due to the stagnation in the European and Chinese economies. They went down 0.4% to 17,070,000 revenue tons, suffering the first year-on-year decline since the first half of fiscal 2009, which was the first six-month period since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. of the U.S. in September 2008.
In contrast, imports to Japan remained so massive that they came close to 30,000,000 revenue tons. As shipments from other Asian economies were steady, they surges 9.4% to 29,896,000 revenue tons.
Looking at exports by destination, those to China waned 4% to 3,597,000 revenue tons. Owing to the slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy, their share shrank by 1.1 percentage points to 21.1%; however, China managed to remain as the most powerful buyer of Japanese products. Finishing second, exports to the U.S. were brisk, enjoying a double-digit increase of 14.8% to 2,783,000 revenue tons. Containers to Thailand, which had eradicated the effects of the floods that hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in 2011, moved from fourth to third, soaring 22.7% to 1,887,000 revenue tons. Those to South Korea went up from fifth to fourth, increasing 6% to 1,496,000 revenue tons. On the other hand, exports to Europe fell from third to fifth, plunging 16.2% to 1,446,000 revenue tons, resulting from the ongoing sovereign-debt crisis.
As for imports to Japan, meanwhile, those from China continue to be powerful, swelling 11.1% to 15,997,000 revenue tons, which were good enough to allow the country to remain as the leading source of commodities moved to Japan. China was followed by Hong Kong, to which 2,633,000 revenue tons of containerized cargoes were moved, climbing 8.8%. The combined volume of shipments carried to China and Hong Kong was 18,630,000 revenue tons, which improved 10.7%. Their combined share enlarged by 0.8 percentage points to 62.3%. Europe remained at third place, but exports to the region failed to reach the two-million-revenue-ton line, falling 4.2% to 1,869,000 revenue tons. Thailand and the U.S. also stayed where they were a year earlier, fourth and fifth places, respectively, hiking 5.9% to 1,648,000 revenue tons and 8.3% to 1,639,000 revenue tons.
