China's Manufacturing PMI Falls to 49.3 in October: All Three Main Gauges Slip Below 50 as High-Tech Manufacturing Keeps Expanding
China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49.3 in October from 50.1 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said on October 31, slipping back below the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction at the fastest pace of contraction in three months. The reading missed a Reuters poll forecast of 50.0.
The PMI is compiled from purchasing managers' reports on whether conditions such as new orders, output and employment improved, worsened or were unchanged from the previous month. Reuters reported that soft demand, including demand for exports, weighed on manufacturers in October.
The weakness extended beyond factories. The non-manufacturing business activity index fell 0.5 points to 49.7, and the composite output index dropped 1 point to 49.7, leaving all three headline gauges below 50 in the same month.
Within manufacturing, the production index fell 1.9 points to 49.8 and the new-orders index declined 1.1 points to 49.4, with supply and demand slowing together. Huo Lihui, chief statistician at the bureau's Service Industry Survey Center, attributed the decline partly to demand brought forward ahead of the National Day holiday and to a complex and changing international environment.
By firm size, large manufacturers stayed in expansion at 50.2, while medium-sized firms registered 48.4 and small firms 47.5, showing the pressure falling heaviest on smaller businesses.
By industry, high-tech manufacturing remained in expansion at 51.3 and equipment manufacturing at 50.6, while consumer-goods manufacturing fell to 48.8 and high energy-consuming industries to 47.3. Production and new-orders indexes for railway, shipbuilding and aerospace equipment and for computer, communications and electronics manufacturing all stood at 53.0 or above.
In non-manufacturing, services activity edged down to exactly 50.0, with holiday travel supporting rail transportation, accommodation and cultural, sports and entertainment services, while construction activity fell 2.3 points to 48.0.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：中国一座工厂的自动化机器人生产线（资料图）。照片：Cory M. Grenier，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Automated robots on a factory line in China (file photo). Photo by Cory M. Grenier, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
