Most of Macao's manufacturers took a dismal view about the prospect of local industry exports in the first quarter of 2009, as just 0.7 percent of the interviewed manufacturers expressed their optimism of it, according to the results of the Industry Exports Survey released on Friday by the Economic Services (DSE) of Macao Special Administrative Region ( SAR).

The survey, conducted in the first quarter of this year, indicated that some 69.9 percent and 4.2 percent of the interviewed local manufacturers respectively deemed that export will "reduce slightly" and "plummet" in the coming six months.

The number of orders acquired by the interviewed local manufacturers averaged 3.1 per month in the first quarter, decreasing by 11.5 percent quarter-to-quarter and 18.6 percent year-on-year, according to the survey results.

As for the export market, local manufacturers generally deemed that export to Japan, the European Union and the United States was relatively better than those of Australia, Middle Eastern nations, African nations and Hong Kong SAR, according to the survey results.

Meanwhile, some 39.2 percent of the interviewed manufacturers said they were troubled by the shortage of orders in the first quarter, while 22.6 percent and three percent respectively deemed that international competition on price and surging price of materials were the two factors that affected local export activities.

As for the coming three months, 69.6 percent of the interviewed manufacturers said shortage of orders will still be their major problems, according to the DSE survey.

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2009)