UK manufacturing companies urged to look at Japan as a 'new' emerging market

Surface Generation, an SME composite manufacturer based in the Midlands employing 20 people, believes that UK manufacturers are missing out the huge opportunities in Japan resulting from Abenomics – the plan of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to shift the country out of a two decade deflationary slump.  Analysis⁽¹⁾ by Surface Generation reveals that the value of UK manufactured exports to Japan in 2013 was around 16.5% lower than in 2012.

The company, which generates some 90% of its revenue from overseas, says that around 25% of its annual turnover in 2012 was generated in Japan, but this year it could rise to a third.

Ben Halford, Chief Executive, Surface Generation said: "Under its restructuring, the Japanese government has already spent around £60 billion on public projects and it plans to spend a further £30 billion in 2014.  At the same time, the Bank of Japan aims to double the country's monetary base within two years, which should also fuel the economy.

"Everyone gets excited about the export prospects in emerging markets, but they forget that Japan is still the third largest economy in the world with a GDP twice the size of the UK, and its GDP per person is 10 times that of China⁽²⁾.  More British manufacturers need to wake up to the growing opportunities in the Land of the Rising Sun and realise that it is coming out of its period of stagnation and in many ways should be seen as a new emerging market."

^{(1) Surface Generation analysis of UK Trade Info export data. Manufacturing exports cover "manufactured goods classified chiefly by material" and "miscellaneous manufactured articles".}

^{(2) 'Doing Business in Japan', UK Trade & Investments and IMA.}