Japan Core Machinery Orders up 9.7 Percent in June
August 10th, 2009* raised eyebrow *
Via: AP:
Japan’s core machinery orders, a closely watched indicator of corporate capital spending, jumped in June for the first time in four months, the government said Monday.
Core private sector machinery orders in June surged 9.7 percent from a month earlier to 732.8 billion yen ($7.5 billion), according to the Cabinet Office report. The figure excludes often volatile orders from shipbuilders and electric power firms.
The result offers further evidence of an emerging recovery for the world’s No. 2 economy, marking a major improvement from a 3 percent decline recorded in May. It also beat a 3.1 percent rise forecast in a Kyodo news agency market survey.
But Yuichiro Nagai, an economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo, cautioned against getting too excited about the latest numbers.
June’s sharp rise stems in large part from a big one-time jump in orders from the nonferrous metals industry. Excluding this factor, core orders were generally in line with forecasts, he said.
Large gains from steelmakers and transport equipment companies also contributed to June’s jump.
Like its Asian neighbors, Japan was battered by the plunge in global demand triggered by the U.S. financial crisis last year. The country’s marquee brands, including Toyota and Sony, have been among the hardest hit, posting massive losses, cutting jobs and slashing production.
An uptick in global demand, particularly from China, has breathed some life back into Japanese manufacturers recently. Factory output rose 2.4 percent in June for the fourth monthly climb.
That is the monster panting for air.
“We reaaallllly neeeeed this steel. And this amount of fuel, oh, and those screws and wood and… without it, nothing goes no more. The stocks are empty and have to be refilled.”
“ok, but only this quarter, we wait the next again.”
can’t find the year-on-year figure. no time to search at the moment. will look later.