The increase in factory activity does reflect a pick-up seen all over the country - including Shanghai. And some managers in the commercial hub expect an even greater rebound this month.

This company in suburban Shanghai makes solar cells for customers in China and overseas. Its annual output of 600 million watts makes it a mid-to-large sized firm in that industry. February orders and output were double January's figures, mainly because many orders had been delayed by the Spring Festival holiday in January.

Fu Zefeng, purchasing director of Shanghai Alex Solar, said, "We are now producing at full capacity. The increase in orders matches our capacity. Overall operation is good. The price of raw material was stable in February."

Fu says despite the rebound in a number of indexes, staffing remains a problem. Before the Chinese New Year in January, the company had 2,000 workers on the factory floor. Now only half remain. Some employees who went back home for the holiday never came back. Because the job requires highly-skilled workers, the company is actively hiring and stepping up training efforts to meet production demand.

Fu Zefeng, purchasing director of Shanghai Alex Solar, said, China's new energy industry is still at its beginning stage, and therefore it's natural to experience fluctuations and instabilities.

Fu said there will be a number of new power station projects nationwide in March and April, along with government efforts to encourage expansion of the industry. He says he expects the PMI to keep increasing with a further rebound in overall manufacturing.

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