Factory activity decline eases after trade truce

Tariff ceasefire: Workers at a plastics factory in Shenzhen. For all the attention on Trump’s pledge to bring mass manufacturing back to American shores, China’s factories are finding ways to remain central to the global supply chain. — Bloomberg

BEIJING: China’s factory activity improved for a second month but remained in contraction, as trade rebounded after the ceasefire in the tariff war with the United States, while weak domestic demand weighed on the economy.

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 49.7 in June, versus 49.5 in the previous month, slightly exceeding the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.