News
Imports and exports of loaded foreign-trade containers to and from Japan’s eight major ports are both estimated to increase year on year in fiscal 2021 (April 2021-March 2022), according to Nittsu Research Institute and Consulting, Inc. (NRIC). More specifically, they are anticipated to grow 2.8% to 7.259 million TEUs and 9% to 4.844 million TEUs, respectively. In fiscal 2022, the think tank projects that imports will swell 2.6% to 7.45 million TEUs and exports, 4.5% to 5.06 million TEUs.
NRIC foresees that incoming full containers from abroad to the Big Eight ports in Japan will turn positive for the first time in three years this fiscal year and sustain their momentum next fiscal year, hiking 2.6% from a year earlier. As consumer spending is expected to remain on a recovery track in fiscal 2022, the research institute forecasts that consumer goods to and from Japan will mostly continue to increase. Imports of parts and components for production as well as machinery are, meanwhile, envisaged to stay robust.
In the first half of fiscal 2021, outgoing containers from the eight ports made a double-digit year-on-year increase, rebounding from a plunge they took in fiscal 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the second half, however, NRIC sees there will only be a smaller hike of around 1% year on year. As the global economy is expected to keep recovering in fiscal 2022, it predicts that container exports will strengthen for the second year in a row. They are, nevertheless, anticipated to mount more slowly, as NRIC thinks their rebound will come to an end this fiscal year.
