Vietnam's manufacturing growth momentum picks up in 2022: IHS Markit

However, the pandemic continued to affect operations as levels of infection remained elevated during January, it said.

The Vietnam manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to 53.7 in January, up from 52.5 in December, signalling a solid improvement in business conditions that was the most marked since April 2021, it said in a press release.

Both output and new orders increased at sharper rates in the opening month of the year as customer demand continued to improve. In each case the rate of expansion was the sharpest in nine months.

Total new orders were supported by a further improvement in new business from abroad, with the rate of growth quickening to the fastest since November 2018.

Despite output rising solidly, some firms indicated that high levels of COVID-19 infections had affected production volumes.

Firms were also increasingly confident in the year-ahead outlook for production, although optimism depends to some extent on the pandemic being brought under control. Around 60 per cent of respondents predicted a rise in output, with overall optimism the strongest in over three years.

A second successive rise in employment was recorded in January as firms continued to rebuild workforce numbers following the Delta wave of the pandemic in 2021.

The rate of job creation picked up from that seen in December, but remained only modest as some staff were off work with COVID and others had yet to return from their hometowns. The increase in employment enabled manufacturers to keep on top of workloads despite sharper growth of new orders, IHS Markit added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)