BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 19. China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to exactly 50% in May.
Data obtained by Trend from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China reflects a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from April, landing precisely on the structural threshold that separates industrial expansion from contraction.
The industrial data shows a widening operational divergence based on enterprise scale. The PMI for large-sized enterprises expanded to 51.1%, marking an increase of 0.9 percentage points from the previous month. Conversely, medium and small-sized enterprises experienced significant contractions, with their indexes falling to 48.6% and 48.5%, respectively, representing month-on-month declines of 1.9 and 1.6 percentage points.
An analysis of the core sub-indexes reveals that out of the five primary components constituting the manufacturing PMI, only the production index managed to remain above the threshold at 51.2%. Despite a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points from April, this figure points to sustained production expansion.
The remaining four sub-indexes fell into contraction territory. Market demand weakened, with the new order index dropping by 0.7 percentage points to 49.9%. Factory inventories also tightened, as the raw materials inventory index fell 0.7 percentage points to 48.6%. Labor dynamics softened concurrently, with the employment index dipping to 48.6%. Finally, supply chain pressures intensified, as the supplier delivery time index decreased to 49.2%, confirming that material delivery periods continue to lengthen across the manufacturing sector.
