In march, China's warehousing index showed that the market started demand recovery and rationally treated the expectation of the market.

          China's warehousing index, which is jointly investigated by the China federation of logistics and purchasing and China reserve development co., was 53.5 per cent in 2018, up 5.1 percentage points from the previous month and back to the expansion range. The main indexes of new orders, business volume, corporate profit and turnover efficiency all recovered to different degrees. It shows that with the arrival of the manufacturing peak season, the storage demand has increased, and the industry has maintained a good performance. In terms of index performance, there are several characteristics:

        Demand recovery, business turning active. In march, the business volume index was 58.5 per cent, up 18.5 percentage points from the previous month and the highest since April last year. It indicates that the demand for warehousing business is gradually recovering after the Spring Festival holiday. Especially in the commodity market, enterprises started to work in succession, the backlog of orders and construction projects gradually entered the state, and the market demand was released. But this year there has been a lot of delay, especially in the north. Due to the national two sessions and environmental protection factors, the construction has been significantly inhibited. In late march, when the environmental pressure was reduced, the demand for the terminal improved significantly. This month, the business volume index has recovered sharply because of demand recovery, business activity tends to be active, the second is due to the low base of last month, and third, the market is affected by the operation of speculative capital. In terms of industry, there has been a significant increase in the volume of steel, building materials and machinery equipment related to infrastructure construction. Under the influence of spring ploughing, the demand for chemical products also recovered significantly.

        Business conditions have improved, but there is still a long way to go. In march, in the context of business index rallied 18.5%, the business profit index rose 14.5%, or there is still a gap compared with volume index, index of main business cost at the same time continue to rebound level in 3.2% to 3.2%. It reflects that business conditions have improved with the growth of demand, but the degree is limited. At present, enterprises still need to rely on scale to support their profits, rather than relying on refined management and value growth. The road of enterprise cost control and transformation and upgrading still has a long way to go.

        The supply of Labour continues to contract. In march, the enterprise staff index was 47.7%, while the returned 1.8% last month, but still was contracting, and is the only one of 11 single index is still below the line from the index. According to the survey, the after-effects of the Spring Festival holiday are still under way. Labor costs are rising, labor supply is tight, and the decline of the index is normal. On the other hand, with the application of intelligent storage facilities, the demand for employees has also declined.

        The city is expected to be good, but needs to be rational. In march, the new order index was 54.7%, up 5.9 percentage points from the previous month, and back to the expansion range. The business activity expectations index fell 3.4 percent, but remained at a high of 60.1 percent. It shows that enterprises are full of confidence in the future market and the industry will continue to develop well. However, it should also be noted that the recent trade frictions between China and the United States are becoming more and more serious, and the weakening of external demand will bring some adverse effects to the development of the warehousing industry. From the end of this month's inventory, another 0.9 percentage point rise to 55.8%. In the context of a clear improvement in demand, inventories remain overstocked. The combination of various factors, the late trend should be rational.
From:China logistics and purchasing network.