High-tech manufacturing on rise in China: robotics up 440%

HONG KONG – China’s latest official manufacturing PMI (for August) has eclipsed its Caixin counterpart (50.4 versus 50.0), suggesting the whole sector stabilised to some extent last month. “But what catches our eyeballs is the fact that the figure for high-technology manufacturing PMIs came in at 52.6, a number which comfortably outran the official headline number,” says French banking group Natixis.

“Putting the high-technology sector under the microscope would find industrial production of industrial robots has climbed a staggering 440% in July compared with last November (earliest data available). Other industries falling within this sector, like wind power and new energy vehicles, also registered relatively strong growth ranging from 10%-40%,” Natixis says.

“Looking ahead, as we believe China still aims to widen its current account surplus to cushion potential foreign reserves loss from capital outflows, and given that the high-technology sector roughly takes up 25% of total exports, there is little doubt that more investment and resources will be channelled into the sector to support its growth.” www.natixis.com (ATI).