Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- Latest: Global factories have best month since 2011
- US factories post fastest growth since 1983
- S&P 500 index hits 4,000 points
- Climate protesters at Bank of England
- Extinction Rebellion: Why we did it
- Eurozone factory growth hits record;UK factory growth at 10-year high
- Next: Profits halve last year as pandemic forced store closures
Speaking of supply chain disruption…. efforts to clear the backlog of vessels at the Suez Canal are continuing today.
Reuters has the details:
The Suez Canal Authority said 87 ships were expected to pass through the waterway in both directions on Thursday, as it tries to clear a backlog since re-opening on Monday.
A total of 194 ships have already passed through between Monday night, when a giant container ship blocking the crucial international trade route was re-floated, and Wednesday, the Suez Canal Authority said.
Related: How a full moon and a ‘huge lever’ helped free Ever Given from Suez canal
Global manufacturing growth has hit a ten-year high as the world economy recovers from the shock of the pandemic.
Output, new orders and employment all expanded at a more rapid pace, with eurozone, US and UK factories all performing well.
Five of the six top-ranked nations were located in the euro area (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and France), taking the combined PMI for the currency bloc to its highest on record, with unsurpassed readings also registered in both Germany and the Netherlands.
Outside the euro area, the strongest improvements were seen in Taiwan and the US. Improvements were signalled for Japan and China, but both PMIs were below the global average.
The increase in supplier delivery times was the second-greatest extent on record, surpassed only by April last year.
The combination of increased new orders at manufacturers and supplychain delays was the main factor underlying a sharp rise in backlogs of work, the steepest since May 2010. Demand outstripping supply also contributed to a marked increase in purchasing costs during March. Input price inflation surged to a near-decade high, the pass-through of which led to the steepest rise in output charges since data on selling prices were first tracked in October 2009.
Global manufacturing conditions boomed at the end of the first quarter, as the #PMI rose to a decade high of 55.0, supported by sharp rises in output and new orders despite the potential of supply side disruption curtailing growth. Read more: https://t.co/ScVvcig3yg pic.twitter.com/dq6IPWw8fJ
“The performance of the global manufacturing sector continued to strengthen in March consistent with the idea that global activity is rebounding as vaccinations become more available.
In the latest PMI surveys, both the output and new orders PMIs increased by a solid amount. The new orders to finished goods inventory ratio at 1.2 stood out as it marked a high since 2010 suggesting strength in the manufacturing sector near-term.