— Japan Feb Machine Orders +4.8% M/M; MNI Median F’cast -0.8%
— Japan Feb Core Machine Orders Post 2nd Rise in Row
— Japan Govt Upgrades View: Machine Orders Are Rising Gradually
— Japan Feb Core Machinery Orders +8.9% Y/Y Vs Jan +5.7%
— Japan Feb Machine Orders From Overseas -18.3% M/M; Jan +20.1%
TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders
unexpectedly rose in February, backed by solid domestic demand amid
easing fears of a global slump and a strong yen, data from the Cabinet
Office showed on Wednesday.
Core orders — which exclude volatile demand from electric
utilities and for ships and are viewed as a leading indicator of
corporate capital investment – rose 4.8% on the month in February,
marking the second straight monthly rise, after increasing by 3.4% in
January.
The February figure came in much stronger than the median forecast
in an MNI survey of economists for a 0.8% fall.
The increase was led by orders from shipbuilding sector as well as
those from the chemical industry, food processors and oil/coal product
makers.
Japanese carmakers are seeking to raise capacity after the
government resumed subsidies for buying low-emission vehicles in
December.
With the global gloom easing and the yen falling back to 11-month
lows in March, core orders are forecast to rise 2.3% in the
January-March quarter, the first rise in two quarters, according to the
government’s projection released two months ago.
The Cabinet Office upgraded its assessment, saying that “machinery
orders are rising gradually.”
In the previous month’s report, it said that “machinery orders are
fluctuating, taking one step forward and one step back.”
From a year earlier, core private machinery orders rose 8.9% in
February following a 5.7% rise in January.
Offshore orders, which are not part of core orders, tumbled 18.3%
from the previous month in February, marking the first fall in five
months, after a 20.1% rise in January.
tokyo@marketnews.com
** MNI Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4835 **
[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$,MT$$$$]
