Asia’s factory activity slowed last month as China’s heavy-handed COVID-19 lockdowns continued to disrupt supply chains and dampen demand, adding to woes for some of the region’s economies that were under strain from surging raw material costs.
Manufacturers slowed activity last month in countries ranging from Taiwan to Japan and Malaysia, business surveys showed yesterday, a sign of the challenge that policymakers face in combating inflation with tighter monetary policy — without crippling growth.
China’s Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 48.1 points last month, improving slightly from 46.0 in April, but staying below the 50-point threshold that separates contraction from expansion, a private survey showed.
Photo: Bloomberg
The outcome was in line with official data from China on Tuesday, which showed that factory activity last month fell at a slower pace. While COVID-19 curbs are being rolled back in some cities, they continue to weigh heavily on confidence and demand.
“Disruptions to supply chains and goods distribution may gradually ease as Shanghai’s lockdown ends, but we’re not out of the woods, as China hasn’t abandoned its ‘zero COVID’ policy altogether,” said Toru Nishihama, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo.
“Rising inflation is forcing some Asian central banks to tighten monetary policy. There’s also the risk of market volatility from US interest rate hikes. Given such layers of risks, Asia’s economy may remain weak for most of this year,” Nishihama said.
Lockdowns in China have snarled regional and global logistics and supply chains, with Japan and South Korea reporting sharp declines in output.
Japan’s manufacturing activity last month grew at the weakest pace in three months and manufacturers reported a renewed rise in input costs, the PMI survey showed, as the fallout from China’s lockdowns and the Ukraine conflict pressured the economy.
The final au Jibun Bank Japan PMI fell to a seasonally adjusted 53.3 points last month from 53.5 in April, marking the slowest pace since February.
“Both output and new orders rose at softer rates, with the latter rising at the weakest pace for eight months amid sustained supply chain disruption and raw material price hikes,” S&P Global Market Intelligence economist Usamah Bhatti said. “Disruptions were exacerbated by renewed lockdown restrictions across China and contributed to a further sharp lengthening of suppliers’ delivery times.”
Taiwan’s manufacturing activity last month stood at 50.0 points, down from 51.7 from April.
Factory activity in the Philippines last month also slowed to 54.1 points from 54.3 in April, while activity in Malaysia fell to 50.1 points from 51.6 in April, PMI surveys showed.
India’s factory activity last month expanded at a better-than-expected pace, with demand resilient despite persistently high inflation.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort