Popular Economics Weekly
It is obvious from the above graph that manufacturing activity is contracting, whereas the service industries continue to grow. Exports that depend mostly on manufactured goods are therefore declining, while imports that depend on consumers are increasing. This also means slowing economic growth, since shrinking exports add less to GDP growth, while much larger import totals actually subtract from growth.
“November was the fourth consecutive month of PMI® contraction, at a faster rate compared to the prior month, said Timothy R. Fiore, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. “Demand contracted, with the New Orders Index contracting faster, the Customers’ Inventories Index remaining at ‘too low’ levels and the Backlog of Orders Index contracting for the seventh straight month (and at a faster rate). The New Export Orders Index returned to contraction territory, likely contributing to the faster contraction of the New Orders Index.”Manufacturing is in recession, in other words. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Kentucky’s steel industry has suffered because of steel and aluminum tariffs that have in fact slowed demand for its products. The result is steel prices have dropped by more than 40 percent since last summer.
“They have been hurt by tepid domestic demand for steel production amid a U.S. manufacturing recession and a global slowdown in economic growth, among other things,” reports the Inquirer.
Demand for steel in the U.S. grew 2.1 percent in 2018. But this year, a slowdown in American construction and automobile production helped diminish demand to just 1 percent, and it is projected to grow just 0.4 percent in 2020, the World Steel Association said this month, per the Inquirer.
And “Global trade remains the most significant cross-industry issue,” said ISM’s Fiore. “Among the six big industry sectors, Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products remains the strongest, while Fabricated Metal Products is the weakest. Overall, sentiment this month is neutral regarding near-term growth,” says Fiore.Why the decline in manufacturing? It has to be the Trump administration’s trade policies, as manufacturing depends on foreign trade for many of its components, and foreign demand for many of its products.
This is while the Trump administration has just announced new tariffs on steel and aluminum products from Brazil and Argentina, further hurting global trade.
We also know overall Industrial Production is declining. Total industrial production was 1.1 percent lower in October than it was a year earlier. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector decreased 0.8 percentage point in October to 76.7 percent, a rate that is 3.1 percentage points below its long-run (1972–2018) average.
Last week’s revised Q3 GDP report was upped to 2.1 from 1.9 percent, with a slight increase in consumption and inventories. But it won’t help an even weaker Q4 GDP which is predicted to barely grow due to declining exports, as I said last week.
Manufacturing and consumer spending are really the two main components of economic growth. Stock prices of the largest steel companies have declined as much as 50 percent, also according to the Inquirer. And with steel prices down, their earnings have begun to decline.
So trade wars seem to be wreaking as much havoc to economic growth as other geopolitical concerns, such as growing civil unrest in the Middle East and Asia (Hong Kong). Continuing to wage trade wars in the name of national security is really becoming a danger to our national security, as well as economic growth.
Harlan Green © 2019
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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