29 October 2002, 09:22  Japan Sept. Production Falls 0.3% as Exports Decline

/www.bloomberg.com/ By Ann Saphir
Tokyo, Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese industrial production fell in September for the first time in three months as a decline in exports prompted manufacturers to scale back. Companies said they plan more cuts next month.
Production fell 0.3 from August, seasonally adjusted, the government said, matching economists' expectations after a 1.4 percent gain in August. From a year earlier, production rose 4.9 percent.
Toshiba Corp. and other manufacturers are paring estimates for full-year sales as growth slows in the U.S., Japan's biggest overseas market. A plan by bank regulator Heizo Takenaka to speed disposal of some $420 billion in bad loans could further slow growth in the world's second-largest economy as banks cut off deadbeat borrowers, sending some into bankruptcy.
``Demand from the U.S. is slowing, and it doesn't look like improving any time soon,'' said Junichi Makino, a senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research. ``Industrial production probably won't recover until March next year.''
Economic growth in the third quarter probably slowed to 0.2 percent, a third of the second-quarter's pace, as a four-month decline in exports sapped growth, according to a Bloomberg News survey of seven economists.
Production will rise 1.2 percent this month and fall 1.4 percent next month, the government said, signaling companies may expect exports to decline further.
U.S. Demand
Orders for communications equipment and machinery slumped last month in the U.S., Japan's biggest overseas market, and consumer confidence fell to a nine-year low. U.S. growth will slow to a 2.2 percent annual rate this quarter from an expected 3.6 percent pace in the third quarter as consumer spending cools, according to a consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Blue Chip Economic Indicators.
Toshiba, the world's No. 2 chipmaker, cut its full-year sales forecast to 5.7 trillion yen from 5.9 trillion yen as demand for factory equipment wanes and consumers buy fewer home appliances.
Fanuc Ltd., the world's biggest maker of industrial robots, expects sales to fall 4.4 percent this fiscal year to 207 billion yen because of lower demand from General Motors Corp. and other car companies, which number among its biggest customers
. Factory shipments fell 2.3 percent last month, today's report showed, while inventories rose 0.6 percent. The inventory ratio, which rises when stockpiles build up faster than shipments increase, rose 3.4 percent.

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