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Compared with November 1994, and bearing in mind that this comparison may be affected by seasonal factors, the value of manufacturers' orders-on-hand in December 1994 showed little change.
The Monthly Survey of Orders-on-hand covers a sample of some 300 manufacturing firms engaging 50 or more workers.
Manufacturers' orders-on-hand refer to orders and parts of orders received earlier by manufacturers for local production which remain unfilled as at the end of the reference month.
Orders received by traders not engaged in production are included if such orders are further placed to manufacturers for production locally.
However, orders placed to manufacturing firms for production in China and other places outside Hong Kong are not included in this series of orders-on-hand statistics.
Beginning from January last year, a new series of statistics on manufacturers' orders-on-hand in value terms compiled in the form of an index is produced, to replace the old series which was expressed in terms of number of months to complete the outstanding orders.
The new statistical series provides a more direct measure of the overall value of orders in the local manufacturing sector that lead to the generation of local manufacturing output.
A spokesman for the department pointed out that caution should be exercised in interpreting the manufacturers' orders-on-hand figures in a single month. Instead, the trend movement of the series as displayed over a wider span of time points should be looked at.
The survey report for December 1994, at $4.5 a copy, is now available for sale at the Government Publications Centre, Queensway Government Offices, Low Block, Ground Floor, Queensway, and at the Census and Statistics Department Publications Section, 19th Floor, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai.
Enquiries about the survey results may be made to the Industrial Production Statistics Section of the Census and Statistics Department on 2805 6441.