Dubai: Japan's imports from the UAE reached Dh60 billion in the first half of 2010, representing a 55.3 per cent growth against the same period last year, according to figures from Japan Customs presented Wednesday at the Dubai Chamber Country Focus on Japan.

Exports to the UAE grew by a modest 12 per cent to 326 billion yen (Dh14.6 billion).

Trade with the UAE accounted for about 4.5 per cent of Japan's world imports and 1 per cent of exports, the report said.

Japanese imports of oil from the UAE has tipped the balance of trade largely in favour of the UAE.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of Japan's exports to the UAE in the first half of 2010 consisted of capital equipment, with a total value of 159 billion yen, the report revealed.

This represented a decline of 17 per cent compared to the same period in 2009.

Japanese exports of passenger cars to the UAE increased by a whooping 179 per cent during that period.

"Recovering from a slump in 2009 when the first half exports dropped to a low 37 billion yen (Dh1.6 billion), imports of passenger cars in H1 2010 rose to 103 billion yen, reflecting a recovery of the auto sales industry of the UAE," the report noted.

This pushed Japan's total exports of consumer durables to the UAE by 137 per cent to reach 112 billion yen, the report showed.

Household equipment

Japan's exports of household equipment fell by 38 per cent to 1.4 billion yen, reflecting the tendency of households to postpone purchases of durable goods, it said.

Last year, 99 per cent of the UAE's exports to Japan consisted of mineral fuels and industrial supplies totalling $22,713 million, the remaining one per cent of exports, however, tells another story.

Aluminium represented 94 per cent of the UAE's non-oil exports to Japan, a report by the Japanese External Trade Organisation (Jetro) revealed.

The UAE also exports bottled Masafi water and pasta to Japan under the category of "man-made filaments" which costs of 2 per cent of the UAE's non-oil imports to Japan, according to Jetro Managing Director Hiroki Matsumoto.

Pasta from the UAE makes up 5 per cent of Japan's pasta imports, he said.

Masafi water is popularly marketed as "water from overseas" in Japan, he noted.

In 2000, the UAE ranked 24th on the list of Japanese exports, just one position behind Saudi Arabia. Japanese exports to the UAE reached $2.53 billion.