And I see that play out, I expect into the first half of next year as well. Steel volumes have been sequentially stable, but as you know, and we mentioned this a few times now, have been lower year-on-year. Steel output is not expected to improve in Q4. Obviously, they have their own environmental production curtailments that happen in winter. I expect that to play through and most likely into the first half of next year as well. Both steel and chemicals are impacted by the crisis, I’d call it, in the property sector. And unless that ship kind of turns around, you’re unlikely to see a lot of tailwind for chemicals and steel. On Manufacturing, the manufacturing PMI for China has been shrinking. It shrunk a little bit again in September at about 50.6% now.
We see volume’s sequentially stable. Automotive is probably the 1 bright spark in that space, but I’d say we’re seeing positive movements year-on-year largely driven by EV production. EV production is obviously growing in excess of 20% at the moment. There’s a bit of momentum around that. I expect that momentum to sustain into Q4 and beyond. On the other hand, Machinery and metal fab output remained weak in the third quarter. I expect those to remain weak in Q4 as well. Lastly, Electronics. Volumes sequentially have been stable but are below last year. As you know, we’ve said before, on-site electronic volumes are stable. We really see the volatility around merchant and package, potentially around rare gases primarily. Overall, chip output in China did improve in the quarter.
In Q3, it was up about 4.1%, and I expect it to kind of remain at that level as we go ahead into the last quarter. So that’s kind of a near-term view, Laurent. If I take a view on the midterm, obviously, a lot has to happen over the next 6 to 9 months for that recovery to come back in shape. I expect that to be around mid-2024, but more medium term, if you look at a 2-to-4-year horizon or a 2-to-5-year horizon, I do see moderated growth coming out of China, and we see that reflected in the IP numbers that we’ll get.
Laurent Favre: So are you adjusting at all the way you’re running the business in terms of management structures and resourcing?
Sanjiv Lamba: Good question. Let me finish off that then. And absolutely, the answer to that is yes. We are treating China as a mature economy, one where we are focused on pricing, productivity, cost management. We’ve got that team reoriented and have done for more than 12 months now, Laurent. So in some ways, we don’t comment on that because for us, it’s a given. I believe that our business needs to constantly look at what we do and align itself to market conditions, and that’s what we started doing in China 12 to 14 months ago and that is now fully in execution today. We manage that business as I would expect any of the mature business to be handled, to focus on pricing, productivity, cost management every day while we continue to look at good opportunities for growth, and we continue to want to invest there should that high-quality growth come through, which meets our investment criteria.
Operator: We will take our next question from Stephen Richardson with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.
Stephen Richardson: Hi. Good morning. Sanjiv, I was wondering if you could maybe talk about some of the recent project wins that your customers have disclosed, specifically the Australian projects and maybe the Indian oil project? And these projects are particularly interesting relative to what you just mentioned in terms of Tier 1 partners and some of the risks around green hydrogen specifically?
