Manufacturing up for third month

Mumbai: Growth in the domestic manufacturing sector strengthened for the third successive month in November, as healthier inflows of new orders encouraged firms to lift production and input buying to greater extents than in October, a survey said.  

The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose for the third consecutive month in November to 54 from 53.1 in October.

According to it, the data signalled the strongest improvement in the health of the sector in almost one year. Buoyed by stronger demand conditions and greater sales, manufacturers increased production at the second-quickest pace since October 2016. The rise was led by intermediate goods firms, although robust growth was also seen in the consumer and capital goods categories, the survey noted.

Similarly, new orders expanded at the second fastest rate in over two years, slower only than that seen in December 2017. Companies suggested that marketing efforts bore fruit, while stronger demand too boosted sales.

The expansion in total new orders was supported by greater sales to international markets.

The pace of growth of new export work was the highest in last four years as manufacturers reportedly received bulk orders from clients in key export destinations.

“The Indian manufacturing sector continued to recover from ground lost in August, with November seeing the headline PMI climb to an 11-month high. The relatively weak demand environment seen earlier in the year showed signs of abating, with clients unfazed by another round of increases in output prices and placing more orders regardless. Correspondingly, goods producers rebuilt raw material stocks in order to guard against possible delivery delays and fulfil contracts,” said Pollyanna De Lima, principal economist at IHS Markit and the author of the survey report.