Japan's machine tool orders hit a record high in September, with undelivered orders exceeding 1 trillion yen.

The growing demand in the AI sector has become the primary driving force behind the increase in industrial machine tool backorders to historic highs. According to statistics from the Japan Machine Tool Builders' Association (based in Minato, Tokyo), by the end of August this year, the total amount of undelivered orders for Japanese industrial machine tools had surpassed 1 trillion yen. To clear the backlog as quickly as possible, multiple equipment manufacturers such as Shibaura Machine are accelerating the expansion of their production capacity. Data released by the Japan Machine Tool Builders' Association on October 9 shows that in September, orders for Japanese machine tools (preliminary figures) surged by 60% year-on-year, reaching a total of 223.2 billion yen. This order amount has seen year-on-year growth for 15 consecutive months, and the monthly order volume set an all-time record since statistics began.