Construction projects restart in Hubei as coronavirus outbreak eases

The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector rallied to 52 percent in March from 35.7 percent in February, beating expectations for an economy hit by the coronavirus outbreak, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.

As pandemic prevention and control in China continues to improve, work and production have been gradually resumed nationwide.

The NBS data show that as of March 25, the resumption rate of large and medium-sized enterprises was 96.6 percent, an increase of 17.7 percentage points from February. Enterprises in the manufacturing sector had a production resumption rate of 98.7 percent, up by 13.1 percentage points.

The PMI is a monthly chain index reflecting economic trends and short-term changes in the economy, said the head of the Manufactory Survey Center the NBS.

The marked increase in March shows that most enterprises have resumed production in an orderly way, and the situation of enterprises' production and operation has improved from the previous month, the official added.

China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD), a leading New Industry City operator in the country, has already resumed work across the country. More than 240 companies in the New Industry Cities of Gu'an county, Langfang city in North China's Hebei province and Jiashan county, Jiaxing city in East China’s Zhejiang province are again in production. In Hubei the New Industry Cities and related businesses have gradually been resuming work in a safe and orderly manner since March 16.

On March 25, Huanggang city in Hubei held an investment project signing ceremony. The city's Tuanfeng county had eight projects signed at the ceremony, of which five were New Industry City projects with a total investment of 1.12 billion yuan ($158.74 million).

Tuanfeng also held a construction kick-off ceremony on March 30 for six projects with a total investment of 824 million yuan in various fields including new materials and new energy.

He Yonghong, head of the county, said the ceremony was to demonstrate Tuanfeng's confidence and determination to do a good job in epidemic prevention and control and to promote economic and social development.

To date, Tuanfeng's New Industry City has attracted 20 projects with a total contracted value of about 3.3 billion yuan. Ten of them have started construction.