Decline in crude oil price drags down value of Japan - UAE trade in 2015:
Results of the first-half 2015 bilateral trade between Japan and the United Arab Emirates showed a steep decline in trade value, resulting from an equal fall in the price of crude oils and gaseous hydrocarbons that Japan imported from the UAE. The value of two-way trade declined by 37.2% to US $ 16.28 billion during the first six months of 2015, compared to US $ 25.92 billion during the same period in 2014. As Japan's import of crude oils, gases and other petroleum products from the UAE constitute nearly 72% of the total two-way trade; price fluctuations of these commodities greatly affect the size of trade value.
Japan's Imports from the UAE:
Currently, UAE is Japan's second largest provider of crude oils, supplying 26.4% of its total crude oil requirements during the first six months of 2015 hence this percentage raised the volume of imported crude oil by 5.9% to 155.41 million barrels compared to 146.78 million barrels during the same period in the previous year. Average price of the said imports from UAE fell by 47.2% to US $ 58.94 per barrel, compared to last year's US $ 111.66. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia remains to be Japan's top supplier of crude oils, with a share of 33.1%.
Japan's imports from the UAE (value in US $ million)
Source: Japan Customs, compiled by JETRO Dubai from World Trade Atlas
In terms of petroleum gases, UAE ranked fifth among Japan's top suppliers with a share of 7.2%. Its price fell by 38.4% to US $ 564.93 per metric ton from US $ 905.83. Qatar topped the list of gas suppliers with a share of 19.7% followed by Australia (18.2%), Malaysia (17%) and Russia (8.1%).
For Japan's aluminum imports from UAE, an average of 11.8% rise in the price of the commodity has been noted resulting from the increase of import volume by nearly 8% in value to US $ 375.27 million. This marks a dropped down value of 3.1% to 158.6 million kg, compared to 163.7 million kg from the last year's first half. At present, UAE is Japan's fourth largest supplier of aluminum in the world and the top supplier among the GCC countries.
Japan also imported from the UAE other goods such as copper scraps, precious stones, metals and non-alcoholic beverages. Copper scrap imports decline by 34.2% to US $ 13.64 million while precious stones and metals increased by 42.1% to US $ 11.19 million. On the other hand, imports of non-alcoholic beverages showed an impressive increase registering an export value of US $ 4.47 million from almost zero during the previous year.
Japan's Exports to the UAE:
Motor vehicles, general machinery and electrical machinery constitute the bulk of Japan's exports to the UAE. The depreciation of Japanese Yen, by an average 16.9% during the first six months of 2015, comparing with the same period of the previous year, seemed to have exceeded the effect of the nominal increases in the volume of exports of some commodities, resulting in the overall decline in the trade value. Japan's current total exports to the UAE has been noted to be decreased by 9.4% at US $ 4,152.60 million compared to US $ 4,584.83 million during the previous year's first half period.
Japan's exports to the UAE (value in US $ million)
Source: Japan customs, compiled by JETRO Dubai from World Trade Atlas
*Included in Motor Vehicles **Included in General machinery ***Included in Electrical Machinery
NOTE: Products mentioned above are some of Japan's all exported products to UAE, value of total exports provided on the table comprises the entire export lists.
Total exports of Japan to UAE from 2013 upto this date remains competitive, making a stable value of not less than US$ 4000 million. This year's first half period, trade of motor vehicles contributes 53.6% of the total exports, valuing at US $ 2,225 million, compared from last year's same period value of US $ 2,377.10 thus posting a decline of 6.4%. Among these motor vehicles, export of passenger motor cars declined by 7% to US $ 1,485 .85 million during this year's first half, compared to US $ 1,598.40 million during the same period in 2014. Export of motor trucks, at the same time registered an increase of 4.2% to US $ 326.86 million from US $ 313.59 million.
A decline of nearly 10% on general machinery export value has been posted on this year's first half period resulting from near 35% drop in the export of self-propelled dozers. Export of dozers is currently valued at US $ 95.40 million, against US $ 146.55 million during the same period in 2014. However, impressive growths in the export of steam turbines, mobile cranes and printing machinery during this period softened the impact of the drop in export of dozers. Steam turbines posted a remarkable 96.17% increase from 2013 of US$ 1.15 to US $30.03 for the first half of current year 2015.
Moderate increase in the export of electrical machinery made much of the compensation against the general weakness in exports during the first half of 2015. On the related note, impressive trend on export of storage batteries have been registered from 2013's first half with US $ 9.70 million it zoomed down to US $1.01 million in 2014 and made a big fall back of US $27.87 million in this year's first six months, electrical motors and generators as well as electrical appliances for switches helped to register a 7.8% overall growth in the export of electrical machinery. Value of these exports stood at US $ 285.82 million during January to June period of 2015, compared to US $ 265.10 million during the same period in the previous year.
Meanwhile, export of iron & steel products such as pipes and pipe fittings and other finished products showed a steep decline of 41.9% in value to US $ 191.73 million while export of sheets, rods and plates increased by an impressive 19.9% to US $ 99.50 million, from US $ 83 million during the previous year's first half.
Among other items of export, textiles registered an increase of 8% in value, to US $ 102.33 million, compared from last year's US $ 94.75 million, mineral fuels such as light oils and oil preparations zoomed up to 387.9% at US $ 27.51 million from just US $ 5.64 million in the previous first half. However, non-alcoholic beverages just maintained its export level of the previous year at US $ 22.63 million, which showed strong growths in the past few years.
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© Press Release 2015
