Asia’s manufacturing managers are seeing stumbles in the region’s economic recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weigh on output and vaccination lags other regions.
Malaysia’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) declined to 39.9 last month, its lowest in more than a year, from 51.3.
Vietnam and India, which have been battling a recent resurgence of the virus, slipped below the 50 level that separates expansion and contraction.
“The recent rise in COVID-19 infections and associated containment measures once again dampened demand, stymied production and disrupted supply chains” in Malaysia, IHS Markit chief business economist Chris Williamson said. “Companies grew more concerned about the potential impact of further virus waves.”
However, Taiwan and South Korea — export powerhouses that continue to benefit from the boom in the electronics cycle and surging demand for semiconductors — remained well into expansion territory, at 57.6 and 53.9 respectively.
Asia’s export engines are scrambling to minimize disruptions to production as the virus flares up in parts of the region, including recent surges in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Global trade has remained a tailwind for economic growth, even as shipping costs remain elevated.
China’s relatively steady expansion is a boon for the rest of Asia, much of which relies on the world’s second-largest economy as its top trading partner.
The Caixin Media and IHS Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for China eased to 51.3 from 52, a press release yesterday morning showed.
The gauge has been in expansion since May last year.
The official purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing was little changed at 50.9 last month, marking a 16th straight month of expansion, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
The non-manufacturing gauge, which measures activity in the construction and services sectors, decreased to 53.5 from 55.2, largely due to COVID-19 outbreaks in parts of the country.
Exports from South Korea, a bellwether for global trade, rose more than expected last month, government data showed yesterday, continuing a rally that has officials expecting shipments to reach record highs this year.
“There is a lot of investment currently under way to address the global shortfall of supply relative to the demand for semiconductors,” including around US-China technology conflicts, Rob Carnell, head of Asia-Pacific research at ING Groep in Singapore, said in a report on Wednesday.
“Extra supply will not come onstream quickly,” even as electronics demand remains strong, Carnell said.
In Japan, where the au Jibun Bank and IHS Markit PMI eased to 52.4 from 53 in May, businesses have grown more upbeat on the outlook, with sentiment at the strongest level since the series started in July 2012.
That matches the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey out earlier yesterday, which showed confidence among Japan’s large manufacturers improving for a fourth straight quarter to its highest level since 2018, even as virus restrictions remain in place.
The Tankan continued to show a sharp divide between Japan’s service companies and its manufacturers.
Exporters are benefiting from a global recovery and weakness in the yen, while consumer-oriented businesses have been casualties of the nation’s drawn-out fight against the virus.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS