According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics Huzhou Survey Team, Huzhou's Producer Price Index (PPI) declined 0.2% month-on-month in August, primarily driven by falling prices in the chemical fiber manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, the Industrial Producer Purchasing Price Index (IPI) surged 1.7% month-on-month, largely due to significant increases in industrial electricity costs. On an annual basis, PPI dropped 2.7% while IPI decreased 4.4%.
Among the 30 major industry categories surveyed, 11 sectors experienced month-on-month price declines, 10 recorded increases, and 9 remained unchanged. The chemical fiber manufacturing industry led the decline with a 3.5% monthly drop, followed by non-metallic mineral products manufacturing at 1.9% and textiles at 1.0%. These three sectors collectively pulled down the overall index by 0.5 percentage points.
Conversely, electricity and heat production and supply showed the strongest price growth at 3.9% month-on-month, followed by textile and apparel manufacturing at 1.4% and agricultural and food processing at 0.7%. These three industries combined to lift the total index by 0.3 percentage points.
Raw material purchasing prices showed mixed performance across nine major categories, with five declining and four advancing. Fuel and power materials led the increases with a substantial 14.0% monthly gain, while ferrous metal materials rose 2.3% and non-ferrous metals and wire materials increased 0.4%. Together, these three categories contributed 2.3 percentage points to the overall index increase.