According to the provisional data released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, Japan's total exports in November this year came to a value of JPY 4.99 trillion (approx US$55.21 billion), decreasing by 6.2 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the country's imports in November amounted to JPY 4.62 trillion (approx. US$51.08 billion), down 16.8 percent compared to November 2008. Thus, Japan's foreign trade balance for November this year reached JPY 373.93 billion (approx. US$4.14 billion).
In November, Japan's total iron and steel product exports came to about 3.24 million metric tons, up 47.5 percent year on year, due to the base effect arising from the global economic downturn which started to affect the Japanese steel industry in November 2008, and these exports totaled a value of JPY 166.04 billion (approx. US$1.84 billion), 25.7 percent lower than the November 2008 level. At the same time, Japanese iron and steel imports in November this year amounted to 581,392 metric tons, down 4.4 percent year on year, totaling a value of JPY 54.36 billion (approx. US$601.2 million), down 42.3 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, also in November this year, Japanese motor vehicle exports reached 479,140 units, down 20.2 percent year on year, while motor vehicle imports totaled 19,199 units, down 16.7 percent. The country's ship exports totaled 1,262,902 gross tons, decreasing by 20.7 percent compared to November 2008.