Japan Machinery Orders

Japan's core machinery orders, excluding those for ships and electric power companies, rose by 2.1% month-on-month to 869.8 billion yen in October 2024. This marks the end of three consecutive months of decline and beats market expectations, which had forecast a more modest 1.2% growth. Orders from the manufacturing sector surged 12.5% to 436.8 billion yen, while non-manufacturing orders declined by 1.2% to 448.4 billion yen. The largest gains were seen in industries such as pulp, paper & paper products (up 560%), electricity supply (up 116.2%), iron & steel (up 75.7%), non-ferrous metals (up 65.4%), and other transport equipment (up 49.9%). On an annual basis, private-sector machinery orders rose 5.6% in October, reversing a 4.8% decline in September and far surpassing forecasts of a 0.7% increase.