Local manufacturers have growing confidence in future

A government survey has discovered that with an increasing number of orders, local manufacturers reported greater confidence on future prospects.

Referred to as the Survey on Industrial Export Conditions, the survey is conducted four times a year and examines local manufacturers’ confidence over the next six months. The latest results concerned the second quarter of the year.

Forecasting the coming six months, 48% of respondents reported confidence, 26.7% higher than the last quarter. Among them, 44.8% expected exports to grow slightly, 2% expected significant growth, while 52.8% expected a significant drop. Less than 0.5% expected no significant change.

Regarding what will affect exports, 76.6% respondents considered lack of orders to be the prominent problem, 9% fierce price competition in external markets and 7.1% lack of workforce. Focusing on the next three months, 61.5% respondents considered lack of orders to be the biggest problem and 9.1% considered fierce price competition in external markets to be the biggest challenge.

The average number of orders in terms of time to fulfilment is 3.2 months, 0.3 short from last quarter. Pharmaceuticals topped the list with 5.4 months, non-textile 3.2 months, electronics and electrics 2.5 months and garments 2 months.

During the second quarter, more popular export destinations for Made-in-Macau products were the EU, the APAC (with mainland China, Hong Kong and Japan excluded), as well as mainland China. The US was not quite as popular as an export destination.

Interviewed manufacturers also reported having hired 1.3% more people than in the last quarter. However, 0.1% less people were hired year-over-year. Nearly 60% of respondents reported a lack of workforce, about 10% lower quarter-over-quarter but about 6% higher year-over-year. Electronics and electrics as well as garment manufacturing had stronger workforce needs.