China's warehouse storage sector expands for six straight months

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's warehouse storage sector expanded for a sixth consecutive month in July, according to a survey jointly released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and CMST Development Co., Ltd. on Wednesday.

The index tracking the sector's development stood at 52.2 percent last month, up 1.5 percentage points from June, the survey showed.

A reading above 50 percent indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 percent reflects contraction.

The index remained in expansion territory for six months, which indicates that the warehouse storage sector maintained a good development momentum, said Wang Yong, vice president of CMST Development.

In July, the sub-index of business activity expectation reached 56.4 percent, a 2.7 percentage point increase from the previous month, maintaining a high level of prosperity within the expansion zone, the data showed.

"Main sub-indexes, such as the business volume, facility utilization rate, end-of-month inventory, and business activity expectations, have all shown noticeable improvements last month," Wang said, adding that enterprises in the sector had ample confidence for future market performance.

With more positive factors in the country's economic operation, the steady implementation of policies to boost consumption and government support of private economy, market demand is expected to continue improving, and the warehousing industry is likely to maintain a stable and positive development, according to Wang.