Machinery / Industrial Parts & Tools

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, due to the slowdown in the expansion of production and demand, the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing industry in April was 51.1%, which was 0.8 percentage points lower than that in March, but still higher than the critical point. Continue to maintain an expansion trend. Among them, the PMI of small enterprises was 50.8%, 0.4 percentage points higher than that in March, and the prosperity has rebounded.

"In April, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index continued to expand on the basis of the obvious rebound in March, and its intensity has weakened. It is still higher than the level of the same period in 2019 and 2020, and the manufacturing industry has maintained steady growth." National Bureau of Statistics Service Industry Survey Center Senior statistician Zhao Qinghe said. "

From the perspective of sub-indices, among the five sub-indices that make up the manufacturing PMI, the production index and the new order index are all above the critical point, and the raw material inventory index, the employee index, and the supplier's delivery time index are all below the critical point. Among them, the production index was 52.2%, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points from March, indicating that the expansion of manufacturing production has weakened. The new order index was 52.0%, 1.6 percentage points lower than that in March, indicating that the expansion of manufacturing market demand has slowed down. The employment index was 49.6%, a decrease of 0.5 percentage point from March, indicating that the employment boom of manufacturing enterprises has fallen.

From the perspective of enterprise scale, the PMI of large and medium-sized enterprises was 51.7% and 50.3%, respectively, 1.0 and 1.3 percentage points lower than that in March, and the PMI of small enterprises was 50.8%, which was 0.4 percentage point higher than that in March.

"The prosperity of small businesses has picked up." Zhao Qinghe said, this month the PMI of enterprises of different sizes has remained in the business range. The PMI of small enterprises was 50.8%, 0.4 percentage points higher than that in March. The production index and the new order index both rebounded for two consecutive months, indicating that the production and operation conditions of small enterprises have improved recently.

This is also reflected in the Caixin PMI, which mainly reflects the production and operation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Data show that the PMI of Caixin's manufacturing industry rose to 51.9 in April, the highest since this year. According to Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Think Tank, Caixin China’s manufacturing PMI was in the expansion range for the twelfth consecutive month in April, and it also recorded the highest value since 2021. The recovery of the manufacturing industry has accelerated in the beginning of the second quarter. On the whole, the current manufacturing boom is still at a relatively high level, and the momentum for economic recovery in the post-epidemic era still remains.

Corporate confidence is generally stable. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the expectation index of production and operation activities in April was 58.3%, which continued to be in a relatively high economic range, and was significantly higher than the level of the same period in the past two years. The overall production and operation expectations of enterprises are improving. From the perspective of the industry, the expected index of production and operation activities in the agricultural and sideline food processing, wood processing and furniture, special equipment, electrical machinery and equipment industries are all higher than 60.0%. The relevant industry enterprises remain optimistic about the recent market development.

However, Zhao Qinghe pointed out that some surveyed companies reported that problems such as chip shortages, poor international logistics, shortage of containers, and rising freight rates are still serious. The high-tech manufacturing supplier's delivery time index has been below 44.0% for three consecutive months. The raw material procurement cycle of enterprises has continued to extend, and normal production activities have been affected to some extent.