Manufacturing across the world continued to surge in March as Germany, the U.S. and the Eurozone all registered PMI numbers above 60 percent. Demand is strong across the world but China slipped 0.3 percent from February to register a 50.6 PMI reading. India also saw a sharp drop off to 55.4 percent after previously pulling back slightly in February from a January reading of 57.7 percent.
The ISM® Report On Business® for U.S. manufacturing in March showed a big gain with a PMI reading of 64.7 percent, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from the February reading of 60.8 percent. “Manufacturing performed well for the 10th straight month, with demand, consumption and inputs registering strong growth compared to February,” says Timothy R. Fiore, ISM® Manufacturing Business Survey Committee Chair. “Labor-market difficulties at panelists’ companies and their suppliers persist. End-user lead times (for refilling customers’ inventories) are extending due to very high demand and output restrictions as supply chains continue to recover from COVID-19 impacts.”
U.S. manufacturing registered a PMI of 60.8 percent for February according to the latest ISM® Report On Business® to reach the highest figure since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“Manufacturing performed well for the ninth straight month, with demand, consumption and inputs registering strong growth compared to January,” says Timothy R. Fiore, Chair of the ISM® Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. “Labor-market difficulties at panelists’ companies and their suppliers continued to restrict manufacturing-economy expansion and will remain the primary headwind to production growth until employment levels and factory operations can return to normal across the entire supply chain.”
Manufacturing in India showed strength with a reported 57.7 PMI from Markit Economics, which represented a fourth straight month of improvement. Italy had a second straight month of growth and a big uptick to a reported PMI of 55.1 percent after registering 52.8 in December. That represents Italy’s highest level since February 2018.
The Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) reported a December PMI® of 60.7 percent for US manufacturing, up 3.2 percentage points from the November reading of 57.5 percent. That figure was the highest since August of 2018 and also indicates expansion in the overall economy for the eighth month in a row after contracting in March, April, and May.
After surging to two-year highs in October, the US and Eurozone manufacturing numbers for November dipped slightly with Germany and Italy also following the pattern. China was the exception as the Caixin PMI registered 54.9 to hit a new series high.
ISM reported a US manufacturing PMI of 59.3 percent, up 3.9 percentage points from the September reading of 55.4 percent and the highest since September 2018 (59.3 percent). The figure indicates expansion in the overall economy for the sixth month in a row after a contraction in April, which ended a period of 131 consecutive months of growth.
While Euro Area manufacturing had a strong performance in September with a PMI reading 53.7 percent, German manufacturers led the charge with a 4.2 percent increase over August to hit a IHS Markit/BME reported figure of 56.4 percent. That represented the best expansion in the sector since July 2018 while the new order growth figure was among the strongest reported months since 1996. Improved demand across Europe, China and Turkey also saw new export orders reach the highest level for Germany since December 2017.
