July PMI reverses trend as production expands faster 
2019-08-01
CHINA’S manufacturing activity rebounded in July, reversing the declines since April, while the non-manufacturing PMI edged down.
The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, which measures vitality in the manufacturing sector, picked up 0.3 points to 49.7 in July from a month earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday.
A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while under 50 is considered contraction.
Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the NBS, pointed out that production was expanding at a faster pace, and market demands had improved.
The sub-index for production posed the largest drag to the headline number, as it rebounded by 0.8 points to 52.1 in July from the previous month, and was 0.7 points higher than the average figure in the first half of the year. The new orders sub-index also picked up by 0.2 points to 49.8 in July. Both sub-indexes posted their first rebound in the past four months.
Meanwhile, the sub-indexes for new export orders and imports both rebounded 0.6 points from a month earlier each, to 46.9 and 47.4, respectively, though it stayed in the contraction territory.
Of the 21 industries surveyed, the headline PMIs for 12 industries were in the expansion range, compared with the nine industries in June.
Among them, manufacturing industries such as tobacco, paper printing, medicine, electrical machinery equipment, computer communication and electronic equipment sectors all posted PMI above 51, indicating rapid expansion of these industries.
In terms of the scale of businesses, PMI of large enterprises rose 0.8 points from June to 50.7, while PMIs of medium and small enterprises both weakened, down by 0.4 points and 0.1 point, respectively, at 48.7 and 48.2.
Separately, the bureau’s non-manufacturing PMI, also released yesterday, retreated 0.5 points from a month earlier to 53.7 in July, but remained in a relatively fast expansion mode, according to Zhao.
The service sector continued to grow steadily, though the sub-index for business activity in the service sector dipped 0.5 points to 52.9, indicating a cooler momentum.
In other industries, 20 out of the 21 industries surveyed showed the PMIs in the expansion territory in July.
Among them, the railways, aviation and the telecommunication industry showed rapid growth in business volume, with the sub-indexes for business activities staying higher than 59 for three months in a row.
The overall PMI output index — the combined manufacturing production index and the non-manufacturing PMI — edged up slightly by 0.1 point to 53.1, indicating that the production and business activities of Chinese enterprises remained generally stable, according to the NBS.
