Japan's quake troubles stand to rattle intra-Asia trade

JAPAN remains the world's second largest trading market between north east and south east Asia despite the migration of manufacturing to more affordable sourcing countries, says Cheshire-based BoxTradeIntelligence's latest report.


The impact of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan will be more acute than expected on intra-Asia trade lanes said the report, according to London's Containerisation International.


"The earthquake and tsunami are likely to be felt in the intra-Asia tradelane well after others have come to terms with it. So it would not be surprising to see many of the short-sea schedules that serve the market disrupted," said Douglas Bannister, author of the report, "Intra-Asia Trade Developments".


The report is a review since 2006 and outlook for the intra-Asia shipping market, predicting the tradelane's two-way traffic is expected to hit 22 million TEU by 2012 - not including the subcontinent and Australasia. This represents a 6.1 per cent compound average growth since 2006, of which Japan accounts for 20 per cent of its imports and 16 per cent of its exports.


China emerges as the biggest intra-Asia market with 35 per cent of all cargo. Intra-Asia seasonality is also examined, as has the increasing size of ships deployed as well as equipment imbalances.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)