— Japan Nov Machine Orders +14.8% M/M; MNI Median Forecast+6.0%
— Japan Nov Core Machine Orders Post 1st M/M Rise in 3 Months
— Japan Govt Repeats View: Machine Orders Are Fluctuating
— Japan Nov Core Machinery Orders +12.5% Y/Y Vs Oct +1.5%
— Japan Nov Machine Orders From Overseas +20.3% M/M; Oct +1.6%

TOKYO (MNI) – Japan’s core private-sector machinery orders surged
14.8% on month in November, posting the first rise in three months, on
higher domestic factory production to make up for lost output in
flood-hit Thailand, data from the Cabinet Office showed on Monday.

Core orders — which exclude volatile demand from electric
utilities and for ships and are viewed as a leading indicator of
corporate capital investment — marked the highest gain since +18.5% in
January 2008, backed by demand for machines making semiconductors and
from the automobile sector.

The November figure came in much higher than the median forecast in
a Market News International survey of economists for a 6.0% rise, and
followed -6.9% in October and -8.2% in September.

But prospects remain shaky as slowing global demand and the strong
yen are threatening a fragile export-led recovery.

Core machinery orders are forecast by the Cabinet Office to fall
3.8% in October-December from the previous quarter, the first fall in
four quarters, following a 1.5% increase in July-September.

Despite the robust rebound, the Cabinet Office maintained its
assessment, saying, “Machinery orders are fluctuating, taking one step
forward and one step back.”

From a year earlier, core private machinery orders jumped 12.5% in
November after rising 1.5% in October.

Offshore orders, which are not part of core orders, soared 20.3 %
month on month in November on temporary demand, up for the second
straight month after a 1.6% rise in the previous month.

Orders for machine tools used for rebuilding flooded Japanese
factories in Thailand, a key production base in Asia, helped boost
November orders from overseas, a Cabinet Office official told reporters.

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

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