SERVICE SECTOR HIT: Despite the manufacturing sector remaining stable, the non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index dropped by the most in recorded history

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 03, 2020
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Local manufacturers last month remained resilient thanks to inventory demand, despite poor market visibility, while service-oriented firms reported that business took a nosedive amid a COVID-19 outbreak, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) climbed 1.4 points to 52.7 last month, pushed up mainly by the subindices on delivery time and unfinished orders, as the virus disrupted shipments, the Taipei-based think tank said in a survey.

“Demand from the supply side, instead of end-market demand, accounted for the PMI increase, reflecting the predicament facing local manufacturers,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a news briefing in Taipei.

Many local firms are finding it difficult to deliver goods to their clients or obtain the materials needed to produce electronic components, because of travel restrictions and a shortage of labor in China, Chen said.    [FULL  STORY]