— Adds Some Details

— 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 mainly by temporary major orders from
shipbuilding sector (+263.5% m/m) as well as those from the chemical
industry (+52.8%).

Japanese carmakers are seeking to raise capacity after the
government resumed subsidies for buying low-emission vehicles in
December.

Orders from auto makers fell 5.7% m/m in February, the first fall
in five months, but remained in a rising trend.

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.

A Cabinet Office official said it is “not so hard” to meet the
projection, adding that the projection would have been met even if the
March orders fell 10.9% m/m,

The Cabinet Office upgraded its assessment for the first time in
eight months, 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.

The February orders data are in line with the Bank of Japan’s view
that business fixed investment “has been on a moderate increasing trend”
thanks to restoration of disaster-hit area.

tokyo@marketnews.com
** MNI Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4835 **

[TOPICS: M$J$$$,M$A$$$,MAJDS$,MT$$$$]