Orders For Garment Manufacturing Industry Rose In First Quarter Of Macao

　　 According to the data of the survey of industrial exports in 2010 of the first quarter of April 2010, the monthly average of orders on hand is 2.49 months, which is 14.2% and 14.7% lower than that in the 2.18 months of the fourth quarter of 2009 and the 2.92 months recorded in 2009.

The garment manufacturing industry has 2.82 months' orders on hand and 1.84 months in other industries. In the export market, according to the comprehensive index of quarterly market orders, the respondents generally agreed that the US, other Asia Pacific regions, China and the European Union were relatively better performing markets; however, the export markets of Australia and other European countries were not performing well, and the situation was not ideal.

For the export outlook for the next six months, the companies surveyed were optimistic about their export prospects, from 37.2% in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 2010 in the first quarter of the year (0.4%). They thought that the increase and increase were 3.5% and 34.1% respectively. In the same period of 2009, only 0.8% of the enterprises thought that the number of enterprises increased slightly from the fourth quarter in 2009 to the "Fourth" season. The number of respondents who thought it would stagnate fell to 41.9% from 41.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009. The above figures reflect the optimistic attitude of the manufacturers to the future export prospects.

In terms of labor demand, respondents said that the number of people engaged in export related industries decreased. The number of employed persons engaged in export related industries decreased by 0.4% and 8.1% respectively compared with the fourth quarter of 2009 and the same period in 2009. 51.8% of the respondents said that the number of persons with staff shortage was lower than the 54.8% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 39.7% in the same period in 2009. Among them, the garment manufacturing industry accounted for 50.4% of the respondents in the industry, which was higher than the 47.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 33.4% in the same period in 2009.

The results of the survey showed that in the first quarter of 2010, 80.7% and 58.4% of the surveyed enterprises were facing high prices of raw materials and foreign price competition, while 35.3%, 32.8% and 26.6% of the enterprises with insufficient orders, lack of staff and high wages were found. In addition, the survey results show that 30.9% of the export enterprises believe that there is no problem. In the case of affecting export activities, 22.2% of export enterprises believe that the high price of raw materials is the most perplexing problem, while 20.4% and 20.2% are considered to be the shortage of personnel and the shortage of orders.

For the outlook for the next three months, 84% of the respondents considered that the high price of raw materials was the main concern of enterprises, while that of foreign enterprises with high price and high wages was 56.5% and 37.7% respectively.