— Japan Apr Machine Orders MNI Poll Median Forecast +1.9% M/M
— Japan Apr New Core Machinery Orders Post 1st M/M Drop In 4 Mo
— Japan Q2 Core Machine Orders Seen +10.4% Q/Q; Q1 +5.6%
— Japan Gov Repeats: Machine Orders Picking Up With Soft Spots
— Japan New Core Machine Orders Exclude Mobile Handsets
— Japan Apr Core Machinery Orders -0.2% Y/Y; Mar +9.1%
— Japan Apr Core Machinery Orders Post 1st Y/Y Drop in 4 Months
— Japan Apr Machine Orders From Overseas -2.1% M/M; Mar -10.8%
— Japan Apr Machine Foreign Orders Post 2nd M/M Drop In Row

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders
unexpectedly fell 3.3% in April from March, marking the first drop in
four months, but are forecast to rise 10.4% in the April-June quarter
from Q1, data from the Cabinet Office showed on Monday.

The Cabinet Office has completely removed orders for mobile
handsets from the key core machinery orders figure — starting with
April data — so that the data give a clearer picture of the trend in
demand. However, the change was not to blame for the drop in April.

There were some cancellations of orders caused by the quake but the
goverment said it does not know how much these cancellations affected
core orders.

In March, core machinery orders rose a seasonally adjusted 1.0%,
with the pace of growth slowing from +1.7% in February and +4.0% in
January, but showed no direct impact of the March 11 earthquake
disaster.

The April core figure came in much weaker than the 1.9% m/m rise
expected in the median forecast in a MNI survey of economists.

But the Cabinet Office more or less maintained its longer-term
assessment, saying: “Machinery orders are picking up but there are weak
spots in some areas.”

Core private-sector machinery orders, which already exclude
volatile demand from electric utilities and for ships, are viewed as a
leading indicator of corporate capital investment.

In April, core private machinery orders fell 0.2% from a year
earlier, marking the first y/y drop in four months after +9.1% in March.

Offshore orders, which are not part of core orders, dropped 2.1%
month on month in April following -10.8% in March and +6.7% in February,
both revised.

Core machinery orders, which exclude volatile demand from electric
utilities and for ships, are forecast to rise 10.4% in the second
quarter from the previous three months, a second straight quarterly
rise, following the 5.6% gain in the first quarter, according to a
survey of companies by the Cabinet Office.

tokyo@marketnews.com
** Market News International Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-5403-4835 **

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