Orders on hand fall again

FOR the second month running, orders on hand at Hong Kong's largest manufacturers have shown a one per cent drop.

While there were sharp rises in some sectors - measured by the number of months' worth of business a company has on hand - these were more than outweighed by shrinking orders.

Textiles led the way down with an eight per cent fall, while clothing orders on hand fell five per cent, and the miscellaneous section recorded a four per cent decline.

Plastic products, however, showed an eight per cent gain, while electrical and electronics were up five per cent.