Industrial exports survey for the first quarter of 2025

MACAU, July 4 - Results of the Industrial Exports Survey for the first quarter of 2025 indicated that the surveyed manufacturers became more cautious about Macao’s export outlook for the next six months. Major exports in the first quarter of this year included pharmaceutical products, electronic products/electrical appliances, alcoholic beverages & tobacco, garments and other food products. Export prospects were better in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Chinese mainland, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Japan).

The surveyed manufacturers reported an average of 3.0 months of orders on hand in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 0.4 month compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Among them, the wearing apparel industry took the lead with 4.9 months of orders on hand. The pharmaceutical products industry and the electronics/electrical appliances industry had 4.4 and 3.4 months of orders respectively, while other non-textile products industry had 1.0 month of orders.

According to the Composite Index of Quarterly Orders by Market, the  Asia-Pacific region (excluding Chinese mainland, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Japan) was a market with better export prospects for Macao, with an index change of 25.6%. On the other hand, the prospects for the USA was relatively poor, with an index change of -43.3%.

As regards export prospects for the next six months, 26.9% of the surveyed manufacturers were optimistic about the outlook, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from 23.0% in the previous quarter. Those who were pessimistic about the outlook accounted for 52.3%, up by 29.2 percentage points from 23.1% in the last quarter. Meanwhile, 20.8% of the surveyed manufacturers expected no significant change in the outlook, a drop of 33.1 percentage points from 53.9% in the preceding quarter.

With respect to factors impacting exports, 68.2% of the surveyed manufacturers considered that “insufficient orders” was the major issue, 38.2% cited “price increase in raw materials”, and 36.4% pointed to “fierce price competition with foreign markets”. For the outlook in the next three months, 43.2% and 15.8% of the manufacturers indicated that “insufficient orders” and “fierce price competition with foreign markets” were the main problems, respectively.

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) compiled the indicators and results of the Industrial Exports Survey based on the data collected by the Economic and Technological Development Bureau (DSEDT) in the first quarter of 2025, with reference to the methodology, definitions and classification criteria employed in the economic research report “Industrial Exports Survey” previously published by DSEDT.