According to Caixin on September 23, the preliminary Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) hit a six-and-a-half-year low of 47.0 in September. This was below the final PMI of 47.3 for August, which was the lowest since March 2009. The final PMI for September will be released on October 1, 2015.
A PMI above 50 indicates an expansion in activity while one below 50 points to a contraction.
It was mainly new orders and new export orders sub-indexes that led the decline in PMI in September, suggesting weak domestic and external demand. He Fan, the chief economist at the Caixin Think Tank, said, "The previous impact from external demand and prices is the main reason for the weakening of manufacturing.”
Source: Caixin.com, September 23, 2015
http://pmi.caixin.com/2015-09-23/100855332.html