Growth in the global manufacturing sector remained in a holding pattern during August, with the rate of output expansion broadly unchanged from those registered in June and July.
The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI came at 52.6 in August, little-changed from 52.4 in July, and has now remained above the neutral 50.0 mark for 21 successive months.
The US PMI rose sharply to its highest level since April 2010 as firms reported stronger demand from both domestic and foreign customers. A weakening of manufacturing growth was, however, seen in both the eurozone and the UK. The euro area PMI fell to its lowest since July of last year. Japan continued to rebound following the after effects of an earlier sales tax increase, stagnations were signalled in China, South Korea and Turkey. Indonesia contracted.
Growth of incoming new orders ticked lower in August, but nonetheless stayed above the average for the current 20-month sequence of expansion. The trend in new export orders showed a modest acceleration, with the rate of increase the sharpest since November last year.
Manufacturing employment rose for the thirteenth successive month in August. The rate of increase remained relatively muted overall, despite improving slightly compared to July's ten-month low.
On the price front, average input costs rose at the slowest pace for three months, while the rate of output charge inflation remained only lacklustre.