Meanwhile, at S'pore's port container terminal (the busiest in the world), a third of the cranes are idle. There are some companies saying they have inventories stretching 6 months out. December's plunge in Asian exports was due to the shutdown of electronic companies during the Christmas period because of the pile up in inventories.
Last Friday US published the latest data for industrial production and manufacturing. BNP Paribas commented:
Industrial production fell by 2.0% m/m in December, bringing further evidence of the sharp contraction in activity in late 2008.US industrial production, chart courtesy of BNP Paribas. Click on image to enlarge.
Manufacturing production lost 2.3% m/m. This overall decline was unsurprisingly led by another sharp contraction in auto output (-7.2%) but was by no way restricted to this sector (output also fell in the machinery sector as well as in the computers and electronics sector, for instance). The latest Beige Book of the Federal Reserve – which covers developments between late November and early January – also indicated that manufacturing activity continued to fall in most districts during this period, “with declines reported across a wide range of industries”.
Activity stabilised in the utilities sector (-0.1% m/m) and decreased in the mining sector (-1.6% m/m).
And just to remind on global picture, Danske bank held a conference yesterday on Emerging Markets Outlook, this chart tells the story (courtesy of Danske bank), click on image to enlarge:
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