— Japan Dec Machine Orders -7.1% M/M; MNI Median Forecast -5.0%
— Japan Jan-Mar Core Machine Orders Seen +2.3% Q/Q
— Japan Oct-Dec Core Machine Orders -2.6%, 1st Drop In 4 Qtrs
— Japan Dec Core Machine Orders Post 1st M/M Fall in 2 Months
— Japan Govt Repeats View: Machine Orders Are Fluctuating
— Japan Dec Core Machinery Orders +6.3% Y/Y Vs Nov +12.5%
— Japan Dec Machine Orders From Overseas +5.6% M/M; Nov +20.3%
TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders fell at
a faster-than-expected pace in December amid the global slowdown and the
strong yen but are projected by firms to rebound in the first quarter of
the year, data from the Cabinet Office showed on Thursday.
Core orders — which exclude volatile demand from electric
utilities and for ships and are viewed as a leading indicator of
corporate capital investment — fell 7.1% in December, the first fall in
two months following a 14.8% surge in the previous month.
The December figure came in weaker than the median forecast in a
Market News International survey of economists for a 5.0% fall.
In the final quarter of 2011, core machinery orders fell 2.6% from
the previous three months, marking the first drop in four quarters but
better than a 3.8% fall projected earlier.
Core orders are forecast to rebound 2.3% in the January-March
quarter.
The Cabinet Office maintained its recent assessment, saying,
“Machinery orders are fluctuating, taking one step forward and one step
back.”
From a year earlier, core private machinery orders rose 6.3% in
December following a 12.5% rise in November.
Offshore orders, which are not part of core orders, rose 5.6% in
December from the previous month following a 20.3% gain in November,
marking a third straight monthly gain.
Orders for machine tools used for rebuilding flooded Japanese
factories in Thailand, a key production base in Asia, continued to boost
orders from overseas in December, a Cabinet Office official told
reporters.
tokyo@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4835 **
[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$,MT$$$$]
