Japan's machine tool orders fell 11.9% month-on-month in July

On August 9, the latest initial data on machine tool orders released by the Japan Machine Tool Industry Association (JMTBA) showed that in July 2011, Japan's machine tool orders were 113.224 billion yen, down 11.9% from the previous month's 128.373 billion yen, but Compared with July 2010's 84.117 billion yen is still an increase of 34.6%. Japan's machine tool orders have increased year-on-year for 20 consecutive months, and exceeded 100 billion yen for 7 consecutive months, but the growth rate of orders continued to decline. From January to July 2011, Japan's cumulative machine tool orders amounted to 787.524 billion yen, an increase of 50% over the same period in 2010. From the perspective of domestic and foreign demand, in July, Japan's domestic machine tool orders were 35.602 billion yen, down 14.6% from the previous month, but up 21.7% year-on-year. In July, Japan's overseas machine tool orders were 77.622 billion yen, down 10.7% from the previous month, but up 41.5% year-on-year. From January to July, the cumulative domestic orders for Japanese machine tools were 243.57 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 48.6%; the cumulative overseas orders were 543.954 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 50.6%. In July, the value of Japanese machine tool orders fell month-on-month, and the year-on-year growth rate also dropped again. Although the earthquake and tsunami did not directly affect the machine tool industry, the downstream Japanese manufacturing industries, such as automobile and machinery manufacturing industries, were greatly affected as a whole. It is expected that domestic orders in Japan will be difficult to recover in time in the future. At the same time, as the growth rate of overseas demand has also slowed down, coupled with the improvement of the base, there will be no more surge in orders last year. Figure 1 Japan's machine tool orders and their growth rates from January 2010 to July 2011