UAE top export market for Japan in GCC

The UAE has maintained its position as the largest export market for Japan among the GCC states, with a share of 39.2 per cent of the market in 2008, according to statistics released by Japan Trade Organisation (Jetro), Dubai.

Japan's exports to the UAE grew by 34 per cent, with export of transport equipment surging 40.6 per cent to $5.2 billion (Dh19bn).

About 78.5 per cent of Japan's exports to the UAE were covered by machinery and equipment that include, in addition to transport machinery, general machinery and electrical machinery.

A new addition in 2008 among the export goods were railway equipment such as passenger coaches and other related materials, signalling the advent of a new area in the export market in the Gulf states.

Among general machinery, the UAE was Japan's largest market for self-propelled cranes, with an export growth of 91.4 per cent to $131.3 million in 2008 from $68.6m in 2007.

For electrical machinery, the UAE toped among Japan's markets for automatic circuit breakers, electric conductors and liquid transformers. The UAE also remained Japan's major markets for TV sets and digital video cameras.

Japan's imports from the UAE, grew by 43.7 per cent in 2008, to $46.4bn, compared to $32.3bn in 2007.

The UAE, ranked as the second-largest supplier of crude oils to Japan, was also ranked as the fifth-largest supplier of goods to Japan, after China, the US, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Japan imported 369.2 million barrels of crude oils from the UAE in 2008, covering 25.1 per cent of Japan's total crude oil imports.

The average price of crude oil was $104.3 per barrel in 2008, compared to $69.63 in 2007. The UAE was Japan's fifth-largest supplier in the world of petroleum gases, with a value of $5.6bn, a surge by 57.8 per cent compared to the figures in 2007.

Supply of petroleum gas included liquefied natural gas, liquefied propane and liquefied butanes, in which UAE was Japan's top supplier of liquefied butanes.

 

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