Machine Orders in Japan Rise

Chandrasekhar Atreya
22 Sep, 2010
New York City

Stocks in Japan closed lower. Machine tool orders soars in August and orders for new ships rises in the first half of the year. Orders from China more than doubled. A Hitachi-led consortium loses its bid for a monorail project in Brazil.

[R]5:00 PM Tokyo, Japan – Stocks in Japan closed lower. Machine tool orders soars in August and orders for new ships rises in the first half of the year. Orders from China more than doubled. A Hitachi-led consortium loses its bid for a monorail project in Brazil.[/R]

Stocks in Japan traded sideways and closed lower. For every stock closed higher two declined. Commodities traded higher and the yen traded higher and hovered near its recent high.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 0.37% or 35.79 to close at 9,566.32 and broader Topix fell 0.4% to 846.52.

Of the 225 stocks in the Nikkei index, 73 gained, 131 decreased and 21 were unchanged.

Orders for new ships increased 17% in the first half of the year from a year ago to 1.96 million compensated gross tons, according to data released Tuesday by the Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan.

Improving conditions in the global economy have fueled orders for bulk carriers and other vessels, reversing the steep decline that followed the 2008 global financial crisis. Orders fell far short of China’s 5.24 million gross tons and South Korea’s 5.35 million gross tons.

Orders for machine tools rose 170% to 85.9 billion yen in August from a year ago, up for the ninth month in a row, according to final figures released Tuesday by the Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association.

Orders from China gained 230% to 22 billion yen on orders from electronic manufacturing services and orders from South Korea jumped 190% to 4.8 billion yen on brisk orders from automakers.

Tokyo and Beijing should hold an urgent high-level meeting about the maritime collision that occurred September 7 near the disputed Senkaku Islands, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Wednesday morning.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged Japan to immediately release the Chinese skipper detained after the collision.

Prudential Financial Inc said it is very close to finalizing a deal to buy two Japanese life insurance companies from American International Group Inc, for a combined value of $4 billion to $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sharp Corp said Wednesday it will acquire Recurrent Energy LLC, a U.S. developer of distributed solar projects, to diversify profit sources and expand distribution routes for its own solar cells.

Sharp said it will spend about 26 billion yen for the acquisition.

Toyota Motor Corp’s auto finance unit in China was fined by local authorities in Zhejiang Province for alleged illegal rebates to dealers.

According to Hangzhou officials overseeing industry and commerce, Toyota Motor Finance (China) Co, paid three dealers 70,000 yuan or about 900,000 yen from August 2008 through April 2010, encourage customer referrals in violation of Chinese law.

The authorities have assessed the Toyota unit with a 140,000 fine and also plan to seize the 420,000 yuan in income tied to these transactions.

Nissan Motor Co said Tuesday that it will offer buyers of its Leaf electric cars a service that should ease driver’s dread of having the batteries run out while on the road. From a mobile phone or a personal computer, the driver will be able to view the charge levels as well as tell the vehicle to start recharging. If the car does run out of power while on the road, towing to the nearest dealer will be arranged.

British Airways said Tuesday it will launch flights between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and London’s Heathrow Airport on February 20, to become Haneda’s second flight service to Europe after the opening of a Paris route by Japan Airlines at the end of October.

Daiei Inc said Tuesday it will markdown prices of around 2,000 food and daily use items by an average 10% to 15% from September 23 to attract customers. The retailer will lower the price of around 500 food items, including spices and snacks, as well as roughly 1,000 items, including cosmetics and sanitary goods. It will also offer special discounts on around 500 other daily use items through October 26.

A Hitachi-led public-private consortium failed in its bid to win an order for a monorail project planned for the eastern part of Brazil’s Sao Paulo city.

Even with the Japanese government and private sector joining forces to spur the development of high-speed rail and other infrastructure, the consortium lost out to Canada based Bombardier Inc.

With a winning bid of 2.46 billion reals, or roughly 122 billion yen, the project is for a monorail that will connect with an existing subway line, extending 24 kilometers with 17 stations and is expected to open in 2015.

Gainers & Losers

Panasonic Corp led gainers in the Nikkei with a rally of 2.43% to 1,138 yen followed by Credit Saison Co 2.08% to 1,225 yen, Daiwa Securities Group 1.99% to 358 yen, Matsui Securities 1.84% to 497 yen, Eisai Co Ltd 1.79% to 3,125 yen and NEC Corp 1.79% to 228 yen.

Sumitomo Osaka led decliners in the Nikkei with a fall of 4.43% to 151 yen followed by Sumitomo Heavy Industries 3.69% to 444 yen, Meidensha Corp 3.64% to 318 yen, Chiyoda Corp 3.47% to 696 yen, Shinsei Bank Ltd 3.03% to 64 yen and Sumco Corp 2.94% to 1,286 yen.