BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 19. China’s
manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to exactly
50% in May.
Data obtained by Trend from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of
China reflects a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from April,
landing precisely on the structural threshold that separates
industrial expansion from contraction.
The industrial data shows a widening operational divergence
based on enterprise scale. The PMI for large-sized enterprises
expanded to 51.1%, marking an increase of 0.9 percentage points
from the previous month. Conversely, medium and small-sized
enterprises experienced significant contractions, with their
indexes falling to 48.6% and 48.5%, respectively, representing
month-on-month declines of 1.9 and 1.6 percentage points.
An analysis of the core sub-indexes reveals that out of the five
primary components constituting the manufacturing PMI, only the
production index managed to remain above the threshold at 51.2%.
Despite a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points from April, this
figure points to sustained production expansion.
The remaining four sub-indexes fell into contraction territory.
Market demand weakened, with the new order index dropping by 0.7
percentage points to 49.9%. Factory inventories also tightened, as
the raw materials inventory index fell 0.7 percentage points to
48.6%. Labor dynamics softened concurrently, with the employment
index dipping to 48.6%. Finally, supply chain pressures
intensified, as the supplier delivery time index decreased to
49.2%, confirming that material delivery periods continue to
lengthen across the manufacturing sector.
