Manufacturing firms optimistic about business outlook by year's end

ABO/NDO – About 53% of enterprises in the manufacturing sector forecast that their production volume will increase in the third quarter of 2019 while 36% expected stable production output, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Nearly 92% of surveyed enterprises said that their production output will rise or remain stable in the last six months of this year. (Illustrative image).

In addition, nearly 92% of surveyed enterprises said that their production output will rise or remain stable in the last six months of this year.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises seemed to be more optimistic about the business activities as over 91% of FDI enterprises anticipated higher or stable production output in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, nearly 89% of non-State enterprises and 88% of State enterprises expected higher or stable production output during the period.

According to the GSO, over 20% of enterprises predicted that production costs for a unit of product will go up in the third quarter compared to the second quarter while over 70% of enterprises expected stabilised production costs and over 9% of enterprises looked to reduce production costs.

A high rate of nearly 90% of enterprises predicted that the number of new orders will increase or remain stable in the third quarter of this year and over 10% of enterprises forecast the number of orders will decrease.

The production of electronic products, computers, leather products, apparel, motor vehicles, rubber and plastic is forecast to receive a higher number of new orders compared to other products in the last six months of 2019.

Despite optimistic forecast, the GSO said that several key export sectors are predicted to fail to maintain its growth rate in the remaining months of this year.

(Source: NDO)