Israel Japan | Business Guide | 2018

B$ Plastics and rubber products 6% Other 2% Simple metals 1% Optical machines and devices 4% Chemicals 6% Machinery and electrical equipment 39% Vehicles, planes,and boats 42% Israel-Japan > Business Guide > 2018 014 > General Information > Trade figures Processing and analysis:The Economic Unit at the Israel Export Institute Processing and analysis:The Economic Unit at the Israel Export Institute Processing and analysis:The Economic Unit at the Israel Export Institute Israeli Imports from Japan Japan is Israel’s second largest source of imports from Asia and its ninth largest source of imports globally. 6 Traditionally, Japan is one of Israel’s main sources of imports,with the average annual imports totaling $1.75 billion over the last decade. In 2016, the imports of goods from Japan increased sharply by 100 percent,totaling $2.3 billion.In 2017,there was somewhat of a decline, with imports totaling $2.05 billion, a drop of 12 percent compared to 2016. However, the scope remained very high compared to the average of recent years (an 18 percent increase compared to the average in 2007-2016). 6 Based on the average of the last decade (2008-2017). 7 Based on 2014-2017 averages Imports from Japan 2007-2017, imports of goods, excluding diamonds (in billions of $) Major Imports from Japan 2014-2017 (in millions of $) Segmentation of Imports from Japan by Branch Based on 2014-2017 averages The extraordinary increase seen in 2016-2017 is attributed to the import of machinery and equipment, whose scope skyrocketed from an average of $244 million in 2014-2015 to $1.1 billion in 2016- 2017.The absolute majority of imported machinery was meant for the semiconductor industry. Our assessment is that the increase in imports stemmed from Intel’s plan to upgrade its Kiryat Gat facility and inaugurate a next-generation chip production line there. As stated, Israel mainly imports machinery and electrical equipment from Japan (39 percent of total imports in 2014-2017) and vehicles (42 percent of total imports) 7 . Vehicle imports are known for their volatility and flux: in 2017, vehicle imports dropped by 40 percent (totaling $600 million in imports) after a 2016 increase of 65 percent ($950 million). It is important to note that Japanese vehicles are imported not only directly from Japan: a not inconsiderable part of imports take place through third-party nations (such as Turkey). These two branches represent more than 80 percent of total Israeli imports from Japan.In other branches, there was an overall positive trend,in part in the imports of plastic and rubber products (an increase of 8 percent,totaling $100 million) and chemical products (an increase of 22 percent for a similar total). Branch 2014 2015 2016 2017 Change 16/17 Percentage 2017 Machineryandelectricalequipment 224 264 1,059 1,124 6% 55% Vehicles, planes, and boats 709 581 951 593 -38% 29% Plastic and rubber products 98 93 92 100 8% 5% Chemicals 112 93 81 99 22% 5% Optical machines and devices 65 61 74 75 1% 4% Simple metals 14 23 27 23 -16% 1% The article was written by The Economic Unit of the Israel Export Institute May 15th 1952: The State of Israel is recognized by Japan and diplomatic relations with Israel were established. These relations included trade and cultural relations and cooperation in science and technology. Japan was the first country, among all of Asian countries, to recognize the State of Israel, and Israel was the first country from the Middle East to open a diplomatic mission in Japan. Historical Moments