In March, the supply of construction machinery in Japan increased by 16.7% year-on-year.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > < FONT face = Verdana > According to the statistics released by the Japan Construction Machinery Industry Association (Chairman: Hiroo Shimada) on April 30, the supply of construction machinery in Japan in March 2008 increased by 16.7% over the same month last year, reaching 295.6 billion yen. It has exceeded the performance of the previous year for 55 consecutive months. Exports increased by 25.5% year-on-year to 208.6 billion yen. All regions outside of North America performed well, posting 72 consecutive months of increases. Domestic supplies were flat at Y87.1bn, with March finally ending a trend of lower performance than a year earlier.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > In terms of exports to different regions in March, North America decreased by 11.6% compared with the same period last year. China increased by 65.5% year-on-year, CIS and Eastern Europe increased by 78.0% year-on-year, all of which performed well. Europe, which is worried about the economic slowdown caused by the subprime mortgage problem in the United States, also increased by 21.5% year on year. Domestic supplies to Japan in March were flat year-on-year, but the possibility of a substantial increase in the future is low due to private constraints on construction investment and other reasons.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > The supply volume in 2007 increased by 16.3% over the previous year, reaching 2 trillion 675.7 billion yen, setting a new record for two consecutive years. Exports increased by 22.8% over the previous year, reaching 1 trillion 785.5 billion yen. Due to the strong demand in the first half of 2007, Japan's domestic supply also increased by 5.1% over the previous year, reaching 890.3 billion yen.

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