Interesting article about Aussie/Japan businesses

[holo 0]

in todays paper Sydney Morning Herald .

[keba 0]

Holo, I don't mean this to come out the wrong way, but if you tell us WHY you think this article is interesting, rather than just posting the link, then you are a lot more likely to get a discussion thread running.

 

Not that the article wasn't interesting, I just wondered what caught your eye about it...it's quite a long article (for a newspaper) and it might have been good to hear your take on it so that discussion could focus on the relevence to the ski industry, which is no doubt why you posted it here.

[NoFakie 45]

I don't know much about Australia but it's currency is rocketing against the yen, making all their products more expensive for importers in Japan. It's gone from 86 to 93 in the past year. It can only go up so much before people turn elsewhere. It's also something Australian companies looking to invest in yen-based assets have to think about. The yen will now be worth maybe a lot less than when the Ozzies bought into Niseko. For their sake, I hope they financed it locally.

[holo 0]

I was keen to see whether the Japan locals saw this is a good thing. For me investment is clearly a good thing, but it need be controlled to ensure no saturation.

[Mantas 3]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Wiggles:] I don't know much about Australia but it's currency is rocketing against the yen, making all their products more expensive for importers in Japan.

What products ? We don't make anything except holes in the ground and thats not likely to change for a while. The demand for our raw material is massive and we have plenty of them from what I can gather. Not something I'm proud of but it does create a decent wealth base for the country.

[thursday 1]

some things I can think of straight away is:

 

beef,

dairy products,

fruit,

souvenir boomerangs and cuddly toys.

[Mantas 3]

Fair comment thursday. I was thinking more of products than produce.

Though I think the tariffs placed on imported beef and other produce by the Japanese government would have more of an affect on the success or failure of our exported produce than small fluxuations in the dollar/yen.

 

All good news to me though. My trips to Japan are getting cheaper and cheaper.

[thursday 1]

Australia is a very big producer of rice. Many varieties. Even China imports rice from Australia.

[Mantas 3]

Well there you go.... Selling rice to China...Someone's a bloody good salesman!

[keba 0]

We're a primary producer, not a manufacturing country, labour cost are too high for us to be competitive in the global market. Lots of natural resources and grazing land though, which is our strength.

 

All I really know is that we got a much btter deal getting Yen for AU$ today, so the ski trip will be cheaper for us...

[NoFakie 45]

The article talked about Australians selling things to Japan. Uranium and nat gas aside, okay maybe bauxite too, I don't know what Australia does, but whoever wrote the article seems to think this new free trade thingy will allow opportunities for Australians to export things to Japan. That was my reading of it anyway.

 

The BOJ piles heavily into the forex market to sell the yen whenever it appreciates. Exchange rates are clearly very important to them.

[thursday 1]

Yes, the BoJ likes the Yen cheap while the States want the yankee cheap. The yank bullying of China over the Yuan is such a pain in the ass. Everybody knows the Yuan will appreciate but the yanks want it yesterday so their deficit would shrink and then they can spend more in Iraq.