May 2019
Survey of Corporate Attitudes Towards Capital Investment for 2019
62.3% of companies plan capital investment
— For investment reasons, “replacement of equipment” ranked top, with an average estimated amount of 135.54 million yen —
Introduction
Overseas risks, including US-China trade friction, a serious manpower shortage and rising fuel prices against the backdrop of the high price of crude oil have become negative factors for the domestic economy, and uncertainty has further intensified.
With respect to capital investment trends, while demand for labor saving and automation to improve productivity have become a positive factor, there are concerns that uncertainty about the outlook will heighten, such as with the slowdown in overseas economies, and that capital investment may be adversely affected. The government is also pursuing policies such as expansion of the SME investment-related tax system, including establishment of a new investment promotion tax system in order to enhance preliminary measures for disasters in the 2019 budget.
Therefore, Teikoku Databank has conducted a survey of corporate attitudes towards capital investment plans, etc., for 2019. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the April 2019 TDB Trends Research.
*Survey period: April 15 – 30, 2019; Companies Surveyed: 23,174; Valid Responses: 9,775 (Response Rate: 42.2%). The survey of capital investment is the 3rd survey following those of April 2017 and April 2018.
*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey HP (http://www.tdb-di.com).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 62.3% of companies “have plans” to make capital investments in 2019. There are large differences depending on company size, with “SMEs” (60.1%) and small-sized companies (48.6%), while “large companies” exceed 70% (71.1%). By industry, “transport, warehousing” show the highest (76.6%), and “agriculture, forestry, and fisheries” (76.1%), and “manufacturing” (72.5%) also show high percentages. On the other hand, 29.6% “have no plans.”
- 2 With respect to capital investment reasons, “replacement of equipment” (45.5%) was top (multiple answers), followed by “maintenance and repair of existing equipment” (33.3%), “labor savings/rationalization” (28.7%), “informatization-related (IT investments)” (28.6%), and “increased production, strengthening of sales ability (for domestic)” (21.9%).
- 3 In terms of costs for capital investment, “10 million yen and above, but less than 50 million yen” (26.9%) was top. The average estimated capital investment amount was approximately 135.54 million yen. With respect to capital procurement method, “own resources” (48.4%) accounted for the highest percentage, followed by “long-term borrowing from a financial institution” (27.9%), and “short-term borrowing from a financial institution (6.3%).
- 4 Reasons for not making capital investment included, “cannot foresee the future” (44.4%) at the top, followed by, “equipment in its current state is at the appropriate level” (33.2%), and “income commensurate with the investment cannot be secured” (20.7%). SMEs particularly had a higher percentage of “the burden of borrowing is large” and “cash on hand is small” than did the large companies, and the results showed the severity of the business environment surrounding SMEs.