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% expected production to increase or remain stable. They were followed by State-owned enterprises and non-state owned companies, with 91.7% and 89.9%, respectively, optimistic.  The tobacco industry is particularly buoyant with 72.2% of tobacco producers expressing confidence in growth, followed by pharmaceuticals (71.1%), electronics, computers and optical products (70.6%), beverages (63.6%), and textiles (63%).

Some 90.8% of respondents predicted the number of new orders in the second quarter of 2018 will increase (53%) and remain stable (37.8%) from the previous quarter. Similarly, 90.5% of exporters expect to receive higher orders (43.6%) or have the number of export orders unchanged (46.9%).

Most the companies, or 51.7%, said they would keep their finished goods inventory at about the same level of the last quarter while 32.8% said they would reduce the level. Only 15.5% are looking to expand inventory.

Metal manufacturing is likely to see the largest fall in finished goods inventory as 39.7% of producers said they would reduce inventory, closely followed by pharmaceuticals (38.6%), non-metallic mineral product manufacturing (38.4%), textiles (36.8%), food processing and production of electronics, computers and optical products (both 34.9%).

The survey also revealed that 69.7% of the firms’ cost per unit will be unchanged and 10.1% will cut the cost per unit. About 20.2% said they would increase the cost per unit.