PMI re-establishes 50 mark - manufacturing industry returns to growth trajectory

Bottom out after 3 months

S&P Global has just announced that the Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in March reached 50.5. Not only did it increase from 49.2 points in February, this is the first time the index has reached above 50 in 4 months.

Vietnam's manufacturing PMI has been below 50 for three consecutive months - indicating that production and business activities are shrinking.

This result signals an improvement in business conditions at the end of the first quarter, indicating that the health of the Vietnamese manufacturing sector has strengthened. Specifically, in March, manufacturing output increased for the first time in three months. The increase was also recorded as the largest since August last year. According to the survey respondents, the increase in output partly reflected an improvement in the availability of goods, but also reflected a return to the number of new orders after a two-month decline.

For example, Kangyin Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Chau Son Industrial Park (Phu Ly City - Ha Nam ) operates in the field of manufacturing electronic products such as car dash cams, phone headsets, phone chargers, backup chargers. In March 2025, the number of new orders of Kangyin Electronic Technology continued to have a strong improvement. Currently, in addition to maintaining exports to some traditional markets such as the US, India, Japan, the company is also promoting the search and expansion of consumer markets to European countries, Southeast Asia, etc.

Mr. Yu Pin Li, Director of Kangyin Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., said that it is expected that in the first quarter of 2025, a new factory will be put into operation.

Or like Elmich Joint Stock Company - a company specializing in manufacturing high-end household electrical appliances in An My - Don Xa Industrial Cluster (Binh Luc - Ha Nam), the number of new orders of Elmich has been constantly increasing in the first months of 2025. Currently, 70% of Elmich's consumption output is in the Vietnamese market and Elmich's products are available in most supermarkets and large shopping centers across the country. Elmich aims that export output will account for about 50% of total consumption output in the coming time. In the immediate future, Elmich plans to expand its export market to Japan in 2025 and strive to achieve a growth rate of 20%/year in the next 5 years.

Andrew Harker, Chief Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that Vietnam's manufacturing sector began to perform more strongly in March, with output and new orders rising for the first time since 2025: " We hope that companies will be able to continue to do better in the coming months based on these improvements. However, manufacturers are still quite cautious, reluctant to hire more staff or buy more inputs. This may reflect an uncertain international environment, with new export orders falling sharply in March."

To achieve this result, some economic experts believe that associations and industries have actively strengthened business connection activities, promoting product consumption. Enterprises have restructured, reduced costs and production prices to enhance product competitiveness, thereby improving efficiency and adapting flexibly to the new situation.

Need to focus and act decisively

According to the Department of Industry ( Ministry of Industry and Trade ), in general, by 2025, Vietnam's industrial production sector needs to make more efforts. In particular, it is necessary to diversify markets, focus on future sustainability, and quickly invest in both human capacity building and automation.

Dr. To Hoai Nam, Permanent Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME), said that in the long term, towards the goal of sustainable growth, the manufacturing industry needs to focus on promoting green production, green consumption and circular business. Furthermore, businesses need to implement a digital transformation strategy associated with the problem of investing in technology, digital human resources, data and risk control, etc.

Towards the goal of sustainable growth, the manufacturing industry needs to focus on promoting green production. Photo: TT

Going into specific solutions, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry added that in order to concretize the target of double-digit growth in industrial production, the Ministry of Industry and Trade continues to effectively implement working programs with localities and existing business support programs to promote the growth momentum of industries in key economic regions, creating momentum to continue promoting industrial growth momentum nationwide.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, to promote the role of the Government in urging, supervising and removing obstacles and difficulties for ministries, branches and localities, promoting the implementation of large and key projects, promoting the disbursement of public investment capital to promote social investment, at the same time, contributing to stimulating consumption and promoting domestic market development.

Focus on removing obstacles for projects in the fields of industry and energy, promoting the development of equipment manufacturing industry serving the renewable energy industry (solar power, offshore wind power, etc.), localizing the railway industry serving the North-South high-speed railway and national railway projects to soon put these resources into exploitation to serve economic development.

At the same time, the Industry and Trade sector focuses on advising on perfecting institutions, policies and laws as a basis for new growth resources in industries in the short term as well as in the long term. Urgently propose to issue the Supporting Industry Development Program in the new period (2025 - 2035) to continue to effectively implement solutions to improve the capacity of domestic industrial enterprises, meet the requirements of participating in the global value chain, and anticipate new opportunities to attract foreign investment.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thanh - Deputy Director of the Department of Industry emphasized that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been and will make every effort to promote the entire industry towards the goal: Processing and manufacturing industry growth of over 9.7% and GDP growth of over 8% in 2025.

Duy Anh

Source: https://congthuong.vn/pmi-tai-lap-moc-50-nganh-san-xuat-tro-lai-quy-dao-tang-truong-381193.html