August manufacturing sector up: PMI at 54.5%

04 Sep '06

3 min read

New Orders
ISM's New Orders Index registered 54.2 percent in August. The index is 1.9 percentage points lower than the 56.1 percent registered in July. August is the 40th consecutive month the index has exceeded 50 percent.

Production
ISM's Production Index registered 56.6 percent in August, 1 percentage point lower than the 57.6 percent reported in July. August is the 40th consecutive month of growth in the index.

Employment
ISM's Employment Index registered 54 percent in August, an increase of 3.3 percentage points when compared to July's reading of 50.7 percent. This is the second consecutive month of growth in employment.

Supplier Deliveries
The delivery performance of suppliers to manufacturing organizations was slower for the 38th consecutive month in August. ISM's Supplier Deliveries Index for August registered 55 percent, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point when compared to July's reading of 55.4 percent.

Inventories
Manufacturers' inventories expanded slightly again in August as ISM's Inventories Index registered 50.2 percent, a 0.3 percentage point decrease when compared to July's reading of 50.5 percent.

Customers' Inventories
The ISM Customers' Inventories Index is at 46 percent in August, which is 1.5 percentage points higher than the 44.5 percent reported in July. The index indicates that respondents believe their customers do not have sufficient inventories on hand (inventories are too low) at this time.

Prices
In August, the ISM Prices Index was 73 percent, indicating manufacturers are paying higher prices on average when compared to July. While 46 percent of supply executives reported paying the same prices and 4 percent reported paying lower prices, 50 percent of respondents reported that prices were higher than the preceding month.

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