NBS: China's April manufacturing PMI at 26-m low of 47.4
The contraction in both supply and demand enlarged last month, with the sub-index for production having inched down for the fifth month by a more substantial 5.1 basis points on month to 44.4, and that for new orders dropped by 6.2 basis points on month to 42.6, according to NBS.
"Some enterprises have faced production disruptions when the resurgence of the COVID-19 became more widely and frequently across China, and downstream demand was also restrained," Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician of NBS was quoted in the report.
Meanwhile, the sub-index for suppliers' delivery time continued to decline on month, and that for stocks of finished products reached its high in recent years, as logistics services have been slowed down amid central government's containment measures to battle against the COVID-19, Zhao noted.
However, some Chinese sectors remained relatively stable operations when the country's overall manufacturing industry contracted. For example, the PMI for sectors that are essential to meet people's basic living needs such as agricultural and sideline food processing stayed above 50, he highlighted.
In April, Chinese pricing indices of raw material procurements and finished product sales fell by 1.9 and 2.3 basis points on month to 64.2 and 54.4 respectively, though still remained high. And those two for oil and coal processing, ferrous and non-ferrous smelting and fabrication stayed above 70 and 60, suggesting the mounting pressure of production costs among midstream and downstream enterprises, Zhao shared.
Last month, China's PMI among the non-manufacturing sector decreased by 6.5 basis points on month to 41.9 also due to the pandemic, and sub-index for business activities in the service sector tumbled for the second month by another 6.7 basis points on month to 40, with 19 of the 21 non-manufacturing industries under the monitoring falling into the contraction zone, the NBS data showed.
Nevertheless, Chinese construction sector remained in the expansion zone, though the sub-index for business activities in the sector slipped by 5.4 basis points on month to 52.7, and that for business activities in the civil engineering construction sector stood high at 61, according to NBS.
Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
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