 |
 |
 |
With regard to Japan's international freight transport by oceangoing shipping
(in tons) in FY1979, exports increased by 4.3% over the previous fiscal year
(down 0.3% in FY 1978) and imports increased by 6.1 % (down 0.6% in FY1978).
(See Table 4)
Export of vehicles, cement, machinery and electric appliances increased over
the previous year. The export of fertilizers declined, as in the year before.
Steel, the main export item, remained at about the same level. With the increase
in the import of iron ore, coal, Lumber and many other items, the import of
dry cargo as a whole increased by 9.2% over the previous year (down 1.9% in
FY 1978), whereas the import of oil such as crude oil and heavy oil showed a
smaller increase of 2.6% (up 0.8% in FY 1978). The shares of dry cargo and of
oil in imports were 53.5% (up 1.6 percentage point from the previous year) and
46.5 %, respectively.
In 1979, the Japanese merchant fleet (including chartered foreign vessels)
hauled 39,820,000 tons of export cargoes, up 10.0% over the previous year (down
6.2% in 1978) and 451,710,000 tons of import cargoes, up 9.9% (down 6.2% in
1978). Accordingly, the cargo share of the Japanese merchant fleet increased
by 3 .O percentage points to 52.3% for exports and 0.5 percentage point to 73.O%
for imports.
The volume of export cargoes hauled by Japanese-flag ships increased 3.5%,
as cargoes hauled by tramps increased 6.9% but cargoes by liners and oil tankers
decreased slightly. The volume of import cargoes hauled by Japanese-flag ships
showed a mere 1.7% increase, with cargoes by liners and tramps increasing but
cargoes by large-capacity oil tankers decreasing. Thus, the cargo share of Japanese-flag
ships remained at 20.8% for exports and declined 2.8 percentage points to 38.8%
for imports, as compared with the preceding year.
Japan's outbound air transport cargoes (in tons) in FY 1979 increased 22.4%
over the preceding year (up 7.6% in FY 1978), and inbound cargoes increased
15 .7% (up 28.1% in FY 1978). The volume of outbound cargoes hauled by Japanese
airlines increased 31.7% (up 5.9% in FY 1978) and that of inbound cargoes increased
23.1% (up 24.2% in FY 1978). The cargo share of Japanese airlines increased
2.5 percentage points to 35.2% for outbound cargoes and 2.3 percentage points
to 38.4% for inbound cargoes.
Domestic freight transport in FY 1979 totaled 5,957 million tons, up 7.5%
over the preceding fiscal year (up 8.6% in FY 1978) , and 442,035 million ton-kilometers,
up 8.0% (up 5.8% in FY 1978). These increase were due to smooth economic expansion.
These showings for FY 1979 surpassed the peak in FY 1972 (5,877 million tons)
in terms of tons and the FY 1978 record (409,500 million ton-kilometers) in
terms of ton-kilometers. (See Table
5)
By mode of transportation, JNR showed an increase in freight volume thanks
to expanded transport demand induced by economic recovery : 2.3% up in terms
of tons (up 1.O% in FY 1978, first increase in eight years) and 4.6% up (down
0.4% in FY 1978) in terms of ton-kilometers (first increase since FY 1970).
This was presumably due to the 11.2% increase in transport by containers (which
accounted for half of JNR's 4.6% growth in terms of ton-kilometers).
|
|
|