CONTRACTION :An intensifying trade dispute between the US and China has dealt a severe blow to business confidence, sending prices down, the CIER president said

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 04, 2019
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month slipped into contraction territory as Washington’s protectionist moves against China and Huawei Technologies Co (華為) heightened concerns over disruptions in the electronics supply chain, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The decline reversed an uptick in April and added uncertainty to an expectation that ongoing inventory adjustments among local technology companies would soon end.

“The sour twist in the US-China trade dispute dealt a severe blow to business confidence, sending petrochemical, base metal and other raw material prices into a nosedive,” CIER president Chen Shi-kuan (陳思寬) told a news conference in Taipei.

Washington’s export controls against Huawei raised worries over disruptions in the global electronics supply chain, she said.    [FULL  STORY]