Japan's Construction Machinery Supply Growth Slows

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > < FONT face = Verdana > Japan Construction Machinery Industry Association announced recently that it has lowered the forecast value of construction machinery supply in 2008. In February this year, the Japan Construction Machinery Industry Association had predicted that the supply of construction machinery would increase by 9% in 2008 compared with 2007, but this time the growth was lowered to 2%. Demand for construction machinery has slowed as a result of the decline in housing starts in Japan, Europe and the United States. As a result, the industry association predicts that the growth rate of construction machinery exports will also slow down, in addition to the fact that domestic supply in Japan will be lower than previous year for the first time in six years.

< P > < FONT face = Verdana > The lowered 2008 annual supply forecast is 2488.8 billion yen, 4.6% less than February forecast (2607.7 billion yen). Japan's domestic supply fell 11% from 2007 to 705.7 billion yen.

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