Japan: Solid machinery orders across a range of industries – Nomura

Analysts at Nomura note that Japanese core machinery orders (private sector, excluding orders for ships and from electric power companies) fell by 3.9% m-m in March 2018, falling by more than the consensus forecast (Bloomberg survey median) of a 3.0% decline.

Key Quotes

“Core orders in the Jan-Mar quarter rose by 3.3% q-q, which was better than the 1.5% decline for the quarter that machinery manufacturers had forecast as of late December.”

“Core machinery orders from the manufacturing sector fell by 17.5% m-m in March, declining for the first time in three months, but orders from the nonmanufacturing sector increased by 2.2%. It is worth noting here that this discrepancy can be explained in part by the presence or absence of big-ticket orders: whereas there was one such order from the manufacturing sector in March (down from two in February), there were four such orders from the nonmanufacturing sector (up from one). In the q-q view, growth in orders looks both healthy and well balanced, with orders from the manufacturing sector up 2.5% and orders from the nonmanufacturing sector up 3.4% in Jan-Mar.”

“In the manufacturing sector, industries from which orders showed a solid increase in Jan-Mar included electrical machinery (+22.0% q-q), chemicals and chemical products (+23.2%), shipbuilding (+50.1%), automobiles, parts & accessories (+12.2%), and other transport equipment (+19.7%). In the nonmanufacturing sector, industries notable for growth in orders included real estate (+77.4%), construction (+7.3%), and transportation and postal activities (+4.9%).”