Keystone-SDA
This content was published on
July 01, 2024 – 11:47
(Keystone-ATS) The context remains difficult for the Swiss industrial sector. Production and order books are down, according to the UBS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) published on Monday.
The PMI index stood at 43.9 points in June, down 2.6 points compared to the previous month, the major bank said on Monday in its monthly study prepared in collaboration with procure.ch. The index has been below the 50-point growth threshold for 18 months now.
This decline can be attributed to a drop in production and order books. At the same time, delivery times have increased for the second time in a row. Longer delivery times can be a sign of high demand, but also be the result of restrictions in supply chains and indicate lower future production.
Additionally, the purchasing inventory component fell to 36.6 points in June, one of the lowest values in the nearly 30-year history of the PMI. At around 47 points, the inventory component of sales is barely below the average and indicates that companies are not massively emptying their warehouses. Only a significant reduction in inventories could create the potential for production to resume.
A recovery in the industrial sector is conditional on a recovery in the eurozone, argues UBS. However, the weakness of industrial PMIs in the eurozone do not give hope for a rapid recovery in industry, according to an initial estimate.
In the services sector, however, the indicator once again exceeded the growth threshold in June. It stands at 52 points, which represents an improvement of 3.2 points compared to the previous month. Order books are up, but commercial activity and employment have progressed moderately. At the same time, the new orders component is almost three points lower than in the previous month.
