The Manufacturing PMI Fell for the Fifth Consecutive Month in August, but was Still Improving

SHANGHAI, Aug 31 (SMM) - China manufacturing PMI fell 0.3% month on month to stand at 50.1% in August, and the expansion of the manufacturing industry weakened.
By enterprise scale, the PMI for big enterprises stood at 50.3%, 1.4% lower than July; the PMI for medium-sized enterprises stood at 51.2%, a rise of 1.2% from July; the PMI for small scale enterprises stood at 48.2%, a drop of 0.4% on the month.

Among the five sub-indices that make up the manufacturing PMI, the production index exceeded 50, while the new order index, the raw material inventory index, the employee index and the supplier's delivery time index stood below 50.

The production index stood at 50.9%, a decline of 0.1 percentage point on the month, indicating that production of manufacturing stabilised.

The new order index stood at 49.6%, down 1.3 percentage points on the month, as demand weakened.

The raw material inventory index was 47.7%, flat on the month, indicating that inventory of major raw materials in the manufacturing decreased on the month.

The employment index was 49.6%, flat from the previous month, indicating that the manufacturing industry's employment fell slightly.

The index for supplier deliveries was 48.0%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage point from the previous month, indicating that the delivery time of manufacturing raw material suppliers had slowed down.