Japan Trade Surplus to Rise to $100 Billion

Chandrasekhar Atreya
06 Dec, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Japan edged lower as resource stocks led the gainers. The weaker than expected U.S. jobs report dragged exporters lower. The government expects fiscal 2011 trade surplus of 9.77 trillion yen. Sale of imported cars climbs 34% in November.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo, Japan – Stocks in Japan edged lower as resource stocks led the gainers. The weaker than expected U.S. jobs report dragged exporters lower. The government expects fiscal 2011 trade surplus of 9.77 trillion yen. Sale of imported cars climbs 34% in November.[/R]

Tokyo stocks moved in a narrow range with resource stocks making up for losses by exporters as the U.S. dollar closed to a three-week low against the yen. Resource stocks closed higher after gold, silver and copper closed near highs.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average edged lower 0.11% or 11.09 points to close at 10,167.23. The broader Topix added 0.3% to 881.41 with four stocks gaining for each that declined.

The dollar weakened against the yen to a three-week low and the closed at 82.645 yen.

Imported car sales rose in November 34.3% from a year ago to 19,052 units, thirteenth monthly increase, according to preliminary data released today by the Japan Automobile Association.

Although sales of cars made by overseas automakers increased, there was a strong boost to the sales from the Thai-built compact cars by Nissan Motor.

South Korea’s steel maker Posco confirmed on Sunday it acquired 51% stake in the Japanese waste water heat recovery company Genesis for 610 million yen and said it plans to expand operations for environmentally friendly power generation technology in Southeast Asia and China.

Trade surplus of the country is expected to grow in next fiscal year to 9.77 trillion yen, up 21% from a year ago, the Japan Foreign Trade Council said in its forecast on Friday.

Exports to emerging markets are expected to be brisk boosting the export projections to go up by 5% to 66.94 trillion yen while imports are expected to edge up 2% to 57.16 trillion yen.

Hitachi Ltd confirmed today it has developed technology that makes it easier for collections of used rare earth minerals from used hard-drive motors and air-conditioners.

The technology, which enables the disassembly of about 100 parts per hour as opposed to just 12 products when done manually, makes it much easier to separate the rare earths from the parts.

Keihin Corp, Honda Motor auto parts’ affiliate, has started providing auto parts to India’s automaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, its first supply agreement to sell to India.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp plans to increase production of sports utility vehicles at its Russian joint venture plant in response to growing local demand and higher import duties which lowers the incentives for imports.

The joint venture plant with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen SA will increase the output of Outlanders from its current 15,000 units to more than 40,000 units in stages by the year 2012. The plant started making the SUV’s in July and now assembles them with most parts shipped from Japan. The plan is to transition slowly to full-scale local production by 2012.

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government’s record of getting government sponsored bills passed by the Diet stayed dismal touching the lowest rate since 2000. Even though the government just managed to get the fiscal year 2010 supplementary budget bill passed it was able to win approval for only 14 of its 37 bills passed for a 37.8% success rate.

The extraordinary Diet session ended last Friday.

Japanese seafood firms are set to expand exports to Asia where the diet of fish is gaining in popularity.

Eleven seafood processing firms from Nemuro will start shipping frozen saury to Vietnam next year. These shipments are expected to touch 1,200 tons a year and include mainly small-sized saury used there as canned food or as fish feed.

Stock Movers

Mitsui & Co rose 1.49% to close at 1,361 yen while Sumitomo Metal Mining Co, Japan’s largest gold producer, advanced 3.4% to close at 1,370 yen.

Among exporters, Canon Inc fell 0.97% to 4,070 yen and Oki Electric Industry Co fell nearly 2% to close at 70 yen.

KDDI Corp fell 1.24% to 478 yen.

Kobe Steel Ltd added 3.05% to 203 yen and Fuji Electric Holdings Co gained 2.09% to 244 yen.