Manufacturing activity remained muted in Asia ahead of the peak holiday season, extending its protracted slump this year, data from S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) showed yesterday.
Japan’s PMI slowed slightly to 48.5 last month from 49.6 in August, falling even further from the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction, according to a report published by S&P Global and au Jibun Bank.
Taiwan’s gauge posted a sizeable jump to 46.4 from 44.3, signaling a softer downturn last month. The global slump has hit the export-oriented economy hard, keeping its PMI deep in the red since May last year.
Photo: AFP
The manufacturing revival in Southeast Asia likewise lost steam with even the region’s best performer, Indonesia, seeing expansion slow to 52.3 from 53.9 the month before.
Factories in Vietnam saw activity shrink after a month of expansion, joining the likes of Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar. Only the Philippines saw an improvement, flipping from contraction to expansion.
The latest data flashes warning signs as manufacturing settles into its peak season ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays. It undercuts cautious optimism that the global economy is finding itself on steadier footing, with consumer demand and exports firming up in some quarters.
It promises to be a tricky path ahead for manufacturers as the onset of the El Nino dry spell and tighter oil supply threatens to revive cost pressures and keep borrowing costs higher for longer.
Eurozone manufacturing activity also remained mired in a deep and broad-based downturn last month, according to a survey which showed yesterday that demand kept shrinking at a pace rarely surpassed since the data was first collected in 1997.
The final eurozone manufacturing PMI, compiled by S&P Global, dipped to 43.4 from August’s 43.5, matching a preliminary estimate.
An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on Wednesday and is seen as a good gauge of economic health, fell to 43.1 from 43.4.
“The output PMI was well under 50 for the entire third quarter, so we are feeling pretty certain that the recession in manufacturing continued during this period,” Hamburg Commercial Bank chief economist Cyrus de la Rubia said.
“In the race to the bottom, France and Germany are leading the way in the September PMIs. Meanwhile, Spain and Italy are pulling through somewhat less scathed,” he said.
The new orders index did rise last month, to 39.2 from August’s 39.0, but it remained firmly below the breakeven mark, S&P Global said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San