— Japan Aug Core Machine Orders -3.3% M/M; MNI Fcast -2.5%
— Japan Aug Core Machine Orders Post 1st Fall in 3 Months
— Japan Govt Keeps View: Machine Order Showing Ups and Downs
— Japan Aug Core Machinery Order -6.1% Y/Y Vs July +1.7%
— Japan Aug Machine Orders From Overseas -14.7% M/M; July +3.0%
— Japan Aug Orders From Manufacturers -15.1% M/M Vs July +12.0%
— Japan Aug Orders From Non-Manufacturers +3.6% M/M Vs July -2.1%

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders fell at
a faster-than-expected pace in August as the global gloom weighed on
appetite for new investments, data from the Cabinet Office showed on
Thursday.

Core orders — which exclude volatile demand from electric
utilities and for ships — dropped 3.3% in August, the first fall in
three months, following a 4.6% rise in July.

The August figure was weaker than the median forecast in an MNI
survey of economists for a 2.5% decline.

Orders from manufacturers tumbled 15.1% in August on the month in
payback for a 12.0% surge in July, posting the largest drop since -16.7%
in November 2009, while those from non-manufacturers rose 3.6% after
slipping 2.1% in the previous month.

The Cabinet Office maintained its assessment, saying that
“machinery orders are now showing ups and downs.”

In the July-September quarter, core orders are projected to decline
further by 1.2% following a 4.1% slide in the previous quarter,
according to the recent government forecast.

Japan’s economy continues to face slower global demand, the fallout
from the territorial dispute with China and South Korea over small
islands and waning effects of subsidy-backed automobile sales.

Last month, the government ended subsidies for buying low-emission
vehicles as the budget for the program was used up.

As a result, new vehicle sales in Japan posted the first
year-on-year decline in 13 months in September, down 8.1% from a year
earlier, according to industry data.

Also until recently housing construction was supported by the
government’s revived temporary reward program for buying energy-saving
houses but the program has been terminated.

From a year earlier, core private machinery orders fell 6.1% in
August, the first fall in two months, following a 1.7% rise in July.

Offshore orders, which are not part of core orders, declined 14.7%
in August, the first fall in two months, following a 3.0% rise in the
previous month.

tokyo@marketnews.com
** MNI Tokyo Newsroom: 81-3-6860-4821 **

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