Japan Machinery Orders Fall to 21-Year Low

Tokyo, March 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's machinery orders dropped to a
21-year low in January, underscoring the severity of corporate cutbacks on
capital spending.
Machinery orders fell 18.5 pct from the previous month to 1,571
billion yen after seasonal adjustment, posting their second-steepest drop
since the current statistics format began in April 1987, the Cabinet Office
said Wednesday.
Foreign orders slumped 49.0 pct to 384.6 billion yen.
Machinery orders are falling steeply, the government agency said,
keeping its assessment unchanged.
Asked about progress in production adjustments, an official of the
Cabinet Office said it is uncertain whether production recovery would result
in growth in capital spending anytime soon.
Core orders, or private-sector orders that exclude those for ships
and power equipment, fell 3.2 pct to 718.3 billion yen.
Core orders, closely watched as a leading indicator of corporate
capital spending, thus dropped for the fourth straight month, the longest
losing streak on record.
Total orders from manufacturers slumped 27.4 pct to 220.2 billion
yen, while core orders from nonmanufacturers gained 13.5 pct to 505.2
billion yen.
Orders from steelmakers fell 75.0 pct after a 461.6 pct rise in the
previous month.
General machinery makers saw their orders drop 28.9 pct after the
previous month's 14.2 pct decrease. Orders from automakers fell 36.2 pct
after a 9.2 pct decline.
In the nonmanufacturing sector, orders from financial and insurance
firms shot up 23.9 pct after a 31.2 pct drop.