Japan’s machine tool orders in October : 82.2 billion yen

Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association（JMTBA）announced the machine tool order amount of October. Total amount of orders in October was 82.2 billion yen, decreased by 2.2％ from the previous month. Domestic order decreased by 4.6％ to 28.8 billion yen, and foreign order decreased by 0.9% to 53.3 billion yen.

The total amount of Japanese machine tool orders decreased from the previous month due to the reactionary decline in the end-of-term effect in September, but the rate of decrease was small. Japanese machine tool orders have exceeded 80 billion yen for the second straight month, and both domestic and foreign demand have been recovering moderately.

Domestic demand decreased from the previous month for the first time in 2 months and fell below 30 billion yen for the first time in 2 months. Orders from many industries declined due to the reactionary decline in the end-of-term effect in September, but orders from the automobile industry exceeded 8 billion yen for the first time in eight months.

External demand decreased from the previous month for the first time in two months. The amount of orders from China exceeded 21 billion yen for the first time in 28 months. The order from Europe exceeded 8 billion yen for the first time in 8 months, but still did not reach 10 billion yen. In Europe, COVID-19 infection has spread again since November, and it is expected that the order amount will continue to be sluggish. In North America, the spread of COVID-19 infection continues, but the order has exceeded 15 billion yen for two consecutive months and is recovering moderately.