According to the provisional data released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance, Japan's total exports in July this year came to a value of JPY 4.84 trillion (approx US$51.702 billion), decreasing by 36.5 percent year on year, but up 6.14 percent month on month. Meanwhile, the country's imports in July amounted to JPY 4.46 trillion (approx. US$47.64 billion), down 40.8 percent year on year and increasing by 9.04 percent month on month. Thus, Japan's foreign trade balance for July this year reached JPY 380.23 billion (approx. US$4.058 billion), increasing by 364.2 percent year on year, due to the higher year-on-year decrease in imports compared to exports.
In July, Japan's total iron and steel product exports came to about 3.167 million metric tons, down 3.3 percent year on year, totaling a value of JPY 246.84 billion (approx. US$2.63 billion), 42.2 percent lower than the July 2008 level. At the same time, Japanese iron and steel imports in July this year amounted to 347,581 metric tons, down 52.5 percent year on year, totaling a value of JPY 35.46 billion (approx. US$378 million), down 71.7 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, also in July this year, Japanese motor vehicle exports reached 406,995 units, down 46.9 percent year on year, while motor vehicle imports totaled 9,547 units, down 60 percent. The country's ship exports totaled 1,632,656 gross tons, increasing by 43.4 percent compared to July 2008.