Posted on 01 Apr 2022
For March, China's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the domestic manufacturing industry slid into the contraction zone after staying in expansion for four months, down by 0.7 basis point on month to 49.5, with sub-indices for both production and new orders being in contraction, according to the latest release by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on March 31.
This month's contraction in PMI mainly reflected China's constrained economic development amid the latest upsurge in COVID-19 cases in many regions and political instability in the international arena, commented Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician of NBS.
On the supply and demand sides, China's sub-indices for production and new orders both slipped to contraction, with the former down by 0.9 basis point on month to 49.5, and the latter falling by a larger 1.9 basis points on month to 48.8, as "operations at both upstream and downstream enterprises were disrupted in some regions as they had to suspend their production due to the COVID-19 outbreak," Zhao said.
In stark contrast, the fluctuated prices of bulk commodities in the global market saw the indices of related raw materials procurement prices and ex-works prices for China's manufacturers climb for the third month, up by 6.1 basis points on month to 66.1 and by 2.6 basis points to 56.7 respectively, according to Zhao.
China's high-tech and equipment manufacturing sectors continued to improve this month, with their PMIs hovering in expansion at 50.4, NBS' data showed.
By scales of enterprises, the PMI of large-sized companies edged down by 0.5 basis point on month to 51.3 this month, while that for medium-sized firms declined more significantly by 2.9 basis points on month to 48.5, and small-sized enterprises' PMI remained in contraction at 46.6.
In March, China's sub-index for supplier delivery time touched the lowest since March 2020, down by 1.7 basis points on month to 46.5. "Most deliveries had been delayed this month due to China's COVID-19 containment measures, which led to the shortage of manpower and restrained transportation and logistics services," Zhao explained.
The PMI for China's non-manufacturing sector, similarly, fell by 3.2 basis points on month to 48.4, according to the NBS data.
China's sub-index for business activities in the domestic construction sector, however, increased by 0.5 basis point on month to 58.1, as work progress at construction sites has been accelerating with the weather getting warmer this month.
Source:Mysteel Global
