Nagoya’s First Half Container Trade Rose 1.7 Percent

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Nagoya in central Japan rose 1.7 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier to about 1.216 million 20-foot-equivalent units, according to preliminary figures released by the Nagoya municipal government.

The Port of Nagoya is Japan’s third-largest container port after the Port of Tokyo and the Port of Yokohama. It is Japan’s largest port in terms of the value of foreign trade.

Nagoya exported 633,259 TEUs of containers between January and June, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier, while it imported 583,546 TEUs of containers during the same period, up 0.9 percent year-on-year.

The port handled 23,069,094 tons of container cargo in foreign trade in the first half of this year, up 3.4 percent from the same six-month period last year. Container cargo exports totaled 11,248,422 tons, up 2.8 percent, and container cargo imports amounted to 11,820,672 tons, up 4.0 percent.

Of the total volume of container cargo exports in the January-June period, 43.6 percent, or 4,904,947 tons, were auto parts. Nagoya City is the capital of Aichi Prefecture, home to many auto-related companies, including Toyota Motor Corp.

China and the United States are Nagoya’s largest- and second-largest trading partners in terms of container trade volume. The two countries are also the largest and second-largest export markets and import sources for the Japanese port in terms of container trade volume.

In the first half of this year, Nagoya’s container cargo exports to China edged up 0.3 percent year-on-year to 2,690,121 tons, while its container cargo imports from China increased 4.2 percent from a year earlier to 5,260,206 tons.

Nagoya’s container cargo exports to the U.S. grew a relatively strong 8.9 percent between January and June from a year earlier to 1,738,906 tons, while its container cargo imports from the U.S. declined 1.2 percent during the same period year-on-year to 969,447 tons.

- Hisane Masaki, The Journal of Commerce.