Japan’s Hot Exports Growth Cools as COVID-19 Hits Supply Chains

Japan’s Hot Exports Growth Cools as COVID-19 Hits Supply Chains
A laborer works in a container area at a port in Tokyo, Japan on March 16, 2016. Toru Hanai/Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

TOKYO—Japan’s exports extended double-digit gains in August, led by strong shipments of chip manufacturing equipment, although the pace of growth weakened as COVID-19 hit key Asian supply chains and slowed factory production.

The trade growth is unlikely to dispel worries about the outlook for Japan’s economy, which has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels after taking an enormous hit from a collapse in global trade in the first quarter of 2020.