In March, the prices of chemical raw materials and product manufacturing fell by 7.7% year-on-year

On April 11, the National Bureau of Statistics released the full PPI (Industrial Producer Price Index) data for March 2023. In March 2023, the ex-factory price of industrial producers across the country fell by 2.5% year-on-year, which was the same as the previous month; the purchase price of industrial producers decreased by 1.8% year-on-year, which was the same as the previous month. Among them, the prices of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing decreased by 7.7% year-on-year, and remained the same month-on-month.

From a month-on-month perspective, PPI continued to remain flat. Domestic production and market demand continued to improve, key projects were accelerated, and prices in steel and cement industries rose. Among them, the prices of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing and cement manufacturing both rose by 1.3%. Internationally imported factors drove down the prices of domestic oil and non-ferrous metal-related industries. Among them, the prices of oil and natural gas mining industries fell by 0.9%, the prices of oil, coal and other fuel processing industries fell by 0.4%, and the prices of non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industries fell by 0.3%. Affected by seasonal factors such as temperature rise, the demand for coal has decreased, and the price of coal mining and washing industry has dropped by 1.2%. In addition, the prices of computer communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries turned from a 1.1% decline in the previous month to an increase of 0.4%.

In the purchase price of industrial producers, the prices of ferrous metal materials rose by 1.1%, the prices of non-ferrous metal materials and wires rose by 0.7%, the prices of agricultural and sideline products rose by 0.2%, and the prices of building materials and non-metals rose by 0.1%. The price dropped by 1.1%, and the price of chemical raw materials dropped by 0.2%.

From a year-on-year perspective, PPI fell by 2.5%, and the rate of decline expanded by 1.1 percentage points from the previous month, mainly due to the higher comparison bases of industries such as petroleum, coal, and steel in the same period last year. Among the major industries, the prices of petroleum, non-ferrous metals and related industries, which are highly dependent on imports, dropped more. Among them, the prices of petroleum and natural gas mining industries fell by 15.7%, and the rate of decline expanded by 12.7 percentage points; A rise of 1.7 percent turned into a fall of 6.1 percent; the prices of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing fell by 7.7 percent, an increase of 1.7 percentage points; the prices of non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industries fell by 8.0 percent, an increase of 2.7 percentage points. The combined effect of the above-mentioned industries on the PPI fell by about 1.38 percentage points year-on-year, accounting for nearly 60% of the total decline.

In the purchase price of industrial producers, the prices of chemical raw materials decreased by 7.1%, the prices of ferrous metal materials decreased by 7.0%, the prices of construction materials and non-metallic materials decreased by 4.6%, and the prices of non-ferrous metal materials and wires decreased by 3.5%. Prices rose 3.7 percent, with fuel and power prices up 0.1 percent.

In the first quarter, the ex-factory price of industrial producers decreased by 1.6% compared with the same period last year, and the purchase price of industrial producers decreased by 0.8%. Among them, the prices of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing decreased by 6.3%, and the prices of chemical raw materials decreased by 5.7%.