The GSO conducted a nationwide survey in January-March to find out business trends of the sector, with 5,850 companies responding.
The survey indicated that, among the respondents, foreign-invested firms are the most optimistic about their prospects as 93.6 percent expected production to increase or remain stable. They were followed by State-owned enterprises and non-state owned companies, with 91.7 percent and 89.9 percent, respectively, optimistic.
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Photo: doisongphapluat.com |
The tobacco industry is particularly buoyant with 72.2 percent of tobacco producers expressing confidence in growth, followed by pharmaceuticals (71.1 percent), electronics, computers and optical products (70.6 percent), beverages (63.6 percent), and textiles (63 percent).
Some 90.8 percent of respondents predicted the number of new orders in the second quarter of 2018 will increase (53 percent) and remain stable (37.8 percent) from the previous quarter. Similarly, 90.5 percent of exporters expect to receive higher orders (43.6 percent) or have the number of export orders unchanged (46.9 percent).
Most the companies, or 51.7 percent, said they would keep their finished goods inventory at about the same level of the last quarter while 32.8 percent said they would reduce the level. Only 15.5 percent are looking to expand inventory.
Metal manufacturing is likely to see the largest fall in finished goods inventory as 39.7 percent of producers said they would reduce inventory, closely followed by pharmaceuticals (38.6 percent), non-metallic mineral product manufacturing (38.4 percent), textiles (36.8 percent), food processing and production of electronics, computers and optical products (both 34.9 percent).
The survey also revealed that 69.7 percent of the firms’ cost per unit will be unchanged and 10.1 percent will cut the cost per unit. About 20.2 percent said they would increase the cost per unit.
Source: VNA