January MT orders, showing declines, domestic up, foreign down

February 22, 2023

The Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association (JMTBA) announced the firm report for machine tool orders for January 2023. The total amount of orders received was 129.0 billion yen. This was the first month-on-month (MoM) and year-on-year (YoY) decline in two months, and the first time in 17 months since August 2021 (125.9 billion yen) that orders fell below 130 billion yen. Domestic demand increased from the previous month, but foreign demand declined from the previous month due to the Chinese Lunar New Year and a reactionary decline from the previous month’s large orders. This was the 24th consecutive month that orders exceeded 100 billion yen.

Domestic demand increased for the first time in two months and decreased for the fifth consecutive month to 43.4 billion yen. Orders fell below 45 billion yen for the second consecutive month and have remained rather lackluster, but orders in January were up MoM for the first time in 12 years.

By industry, five of the eleven industries showed both MoM and YoY growth. Looking at the four major industries, orders were stable in industries other than motor vehicles, especially electrical & precision machinery, which exceeded 7 billion yen for the first time in five months. Motor vehicles remained below 8 billion yen for the first time in 20 months, showing no signs of recovery.

Foreign demand decreased both MoM and YoY for the first time in two months to 85.6 billion yen, falling below 90 billion yen for the first time in two months.

By region, orders from Asia fell below 40 billion yen for the first time in 16 months due to the impact of the Lunar New Year holiday in China and a reactionary decline following the previous month’s large orders in India. Orders from Europe were firm, mainly from Germany, Italy and other major countries. In addition, orders from Turkey exceeded 3 billion yen for the first time, orders from Switzerland reached the second-highest level ever, and orders from Europe exceeded 20 billion yen for the first time in two months. In North America, orders remained at a high level, exceeding 25 billion yen for the second consecutive month, despite a decline in large orders for aircraft/shipbuilding/transportation equipment in the United States.

January Summary

	Amount (million yen)	MoM change (%)	YoY change (%)
Total Orders	129,087	91.8	90.3
Domestic total	43,402	102.7	98.3
Industrial Machinery	18,085	114.5	92.6
Motor Vehicles	7,900	78.0	98.5
Electrical & Precision Machinery	7,864	124.0	116.8
Aircraft/Shipbuilding/Transport equipment	1,798	122.3	123.4
Foreign total	85,685	87.2	86.8
Asia	37,085	78.7	78.0
Europe	20,845	108.1	102.1
North America	25,466	85.3	86.6