By Leika Kihara <\/p>\n
TOKYO, July 1 (Reuters) – The global AI boom powered Asia’s manufacturing sector in June, with brisk demand for technology-related goods offsetting the drag from the Iran war, business surveys showed \u200con Wednesday, offering some relief for the region’s export-reliant economies. <\/p>\n
Price pressures, however, remained elevated as supply \u200cshortages and shipping delays lengthened lead times, suggesting the energy shock tied to the Middle East conflict could intensify across the region in \u200bcoming months. <\/p>\n
For now, the surveys underscore how the global AI investment wave is reshaping Asia’s economic fortunes. Booming demand for chips, data-centre equipment and other technology goods provides a powerful engine for growth and acts as a critical buffer against mounting geopolitical and trade risks. <\/p>\n
China, Japan and South Korea saw factory activity expand in June on solid demand for \u200cchips, computers and other AI-related products, as \u2060well as stockpiling by firms seeking to guard against shortages and price rises from the Middle East conflict. <\/p>\n
China’s RatingDog General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) hit 51.7 in June, expanding \u2060for a seventh straight month and exceeding the 50 mark separating growth from contraction, the survey showed on Wednesday. It eased from 51.8 in May but exceeded analysts’ forecast of 51.6. <\/p>\n
The finding aligned with an official survey released on Tuesday showing \u200bChina’s \u200bfactory activity returned to expansion last month on robust export \u200borders. <\/p>\n
“Overall, the manufacturing sector maintained a steady expansion \u200cin June, supported by sustained new order growth, easing cost pressures and improved labour market conditions,” Yao Yu, founder of RatingDog, said on China’s PMI. <\/p>\n
Japan’s PMI rose to 54.8 in June from 54.5 in the prior month, expanding for a sixth consecutive month with new orders growing at their fastest pace in more than two years. <\/p>\n
But input cost inflation stayed at a nearly four-year high in June, a sign of mounting price pressures that could crimp \u200ccorporate margins and lead to broad-based inflation. <\/p>\n
South Korea’s factory activity \u200bexpanded for the seventh consecutive month, though at a slower pace \u200bthan in May on falling export demand. <\/p>\n
“Firms frequently \u200breported that rising raw material prices, alongside difficulties sourcing and receiving inputs due to delays \u200cand shortages, weighed on sector performance,” said Usamah \u200bBhatti, economist at S&P Global \u200bMarket Intelligence. <\/p>\n
Factory activity in most Asian emerging economies continued to expand. The Philippines held steady at 50.9 in June from 50.8 in May, and Malaysia rose to 50.7 from 49.9 in May, the surveys \u200bshowed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Leika Kihara TOKYO, July 1 (Reuters) – The global AI boom powered Asia’s manufacturing sector in June,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,92983,210419,127065,80],"class_list":["post-527460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-manufacturing-sector","tag-price-pressures","tag-supply-shortages","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}