Dubai: Japan's two-way trade with Gulf Cooperation Council countries surged 39.10 per cent in 2005 to $88.54 billion, from $63.65 billion in 2004, Japan trade organisation Jetro said in a statement yesterday.

Japan's mineral oil imports made up nearly 85 per cent of its trade with the GCC countries owing to the increase in crude oil prices. Economic expansion in the GCC and a moderate recovery in Japan?s economy itself also contributed to the surge in bilateral trade.

Japan?s trade with all GCC countries surged during the year 2005, with Saudi Arabia and Oman leading with a near 50 per cent growth.
Japan?s exports to the GCC countries grew by 15.04 per cent to $13.06 billion in 2005, compared to $11.35 billion in 2004.

Nearly 80 per cent of the total exports were machinery and equipment, with a value of $10.19 billion, which is 11.06 per cent higher than in 2004.

Altogether, export of manufactured products made up 98 per cent of total exports, with a value of $12.80 billion, up 15.06 per cent.
The remaining two per cent was foodstuff, raw materials and mineral fuels.

Among machinery and equipment, export of transport machinery occupied a dominant position with a value of $7.052 billion, 16.7 per cent higher than in 2004. The most in demand item among Japanese products exported to the GCC was passenger cars.

 Japan?s imports from the GCC surged by 44.32 per cent in 2005 to $75.48 billion. Mineral fuels alone covered 98.76 per cent of Japan?s imports from the GCC countries, leaving the remaining small part to semi-finished aluminium. Other imports were insignificant.

Crude oil imports made up 80.37 per cent of the total imports, with a value of $60.66 billion. Japan imported a total of 1.183.95 billion barrels of crude oil from the GCC countries at an average price of $51.25 per barrel, a price that was 41.10 per cent higher than what was in 2004. Indicating the turnaround in the Japanese economy in 2005, the quantity of crude oil import rose by 7.62 per cent.

Though the rate of growth of exports to the UAE was only 5.7 per cent, UAE remained Japan?s largest market among the GCC countries, covering a share of 37.26 per cent among GCC countries.

Exports to the UAE amounted to $4.867.8 billion, with transport equipment alone covering 44.4 per cent of it.

While export of transport machinery increased by 12.92 per cent, that of general machinery and electrical machinery declined by 2.32 per cent and 19.04 per cent respectively.