For the first time in two months, domestic orders increased, rising nine percent from April to US$429 million. This translated to a 43.9 percent increase in orders as compared to that of May 2014. Delving deeper to specific industries, orders in May rose from April for industrial machinery (17 percent), electrical & precision machinery (37.7 percent) and aircraft, shipbuilding & transport equipment (25.3 percent). Orders for that in motor vehicles however fell 22.4 percent.

Foreign orders registered a 0.5 percent decrease from April to US$696 million, declining for the second consecutive month. This however, still translated to an increase of 2.3 percent of foreign orders compared to that of May 2014.

Compared to April this year, orders for Asia and Europe fell by 2.7 percent and 8.8 percent, to US$385 million and US$115 million respectively. That for North America in contrast rose by 9.9 percent to US$187 million.

When compared to May 2014, orders for May 2015 were still higher for Asia (6.6 percent) and North America (11.1 percent). For Europe, orders declined by 14.7 percent.

With orders going strong, experts from the Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association foresee a continuing positive trend in domestic and foreign demands henceforward.