US manufacturing growth is set to slow in the second quarter, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI survey.

The March composite index of future business activity fell to 57 per cent from 64 per cent in December.
A reading above 50 per cent indicates that overall manufacturing activity is expected to increase over the next three months.
The quarterly survey is of 68 respondents from a broad range of manufacturers. All of the 10 factors measured by the quarterly survey were lower than the previous report.
The fall in the composite index along with the decline in the individual indexes clearly indicate that manufacturing sector activity has slowed, according to the survey.
The inventory index fell to 54 per cent from 64 per cent in December, marking the lowest point since March 2004 and suggesting that manufacturers are reining in inventory growth, MAPI said. MAPI added two new indexes with this survey — the prospective (non-US) shipments index and the non-US investment index, a gauge of relative growth or decline of US versus non-US activity of member companies. The prospective (non-US) shipments index was at 80 per cent, while the non-US investment index stood at 75 per cent.
The orders index, which compares new orders during the first quarter, compared to the same time a year ago, fell to 58 per cent from 69 per cent.