Businesses across Asia-Pacific are still waiting an average of 79 days to get paid, according to new benchmarking data from Aon, with the figure essentially unchanged from a year earlier despite continued pressure on corporate cash flow.
The finding comes from Aon's Working Capital Benchmarking Report APAC 2026, which examined audited financial data from 3,805 publicly listed companies spanning 14 markets and 21 industries. While the regional average held steady, the study points to a widening gap in how quickly companies in different countries and sectors convert sales into cash.
A separate Payment Practices Barometer from Atradius, published in July 2026 based on responses from more than 2,100 suppliers across eight Asian markets, described the region's B2B credit environment as "resilient but uneven," with risk becoming more concentrated in weaker firms rather than spreading evenly. "Stronger companies sustain stable payment behaviour, while weaker segments face rising strain that remains less visible in aggregate data," said Silvia Ungaro, the firm's senior advisor on B2B payment trends - a note of caution that headline averages like Aon's 79-day figure can mask just how differently individual companies within a market are actually faring.
Days receivable - the average time between delivering goods or services and actually being paid for them - is a core measure of working capital health. A longer collection cycle ties up cash that businesses might otherwise put toward growth, investment or day-to-day operations, a problem that becomes more acute when the cost of external financing is elevated.
"As financing costs remain elevated, many CFOs and treasurers are increasingly focused on unlocking liquidity already within their businesses," said Steve Taylor, Aon's deputy global and Asia head of credit solutions. Benchmarking performance against peers, he added, can help organisations identify opportunities to improve financial flexibility and strengthen access to capital through solutions such as credit insurance and credit insurance-backed financing.
The country-level breakdown shows significant differences in collection performance across the region. China posted the longest wait for payment at 99 days, followed by Hong Kong (76 days) and Singapore (73 days). New Zealand sat at the opposite end with the fastest turnaround at 41 days, trailed by Vietnam (45 days) and Australia (48 days).
Movement over the past year was mixed. India logged the sharpest improvement, cutting its collection period by eight days to 56, while the Philippines shaved seven days off its own figure to reach 49 days. Thailand moved in the other direction, adding four days to reach 53, and Hong Kong crept up three days to 76.
The industry data tells a similarly split story. Hospitality businesses collected payment fastest, in an average of just 28 days, with retail (29 days) and non-retail food (38 days) close behind. Engineering and construction sat at the other extreme, with companies recording an average of 143 days receivable - more than five times the hospitality figure - followed by electrical products (109 days) and pharmaceuticals (96 days).
The five-year view makes the structural nature of the problem clearer. Engineering and construction has seen collection times stretch by 19 days over that period, the worst performance of any sector. Hospitality and motor vehicles recorded the strongest gains. That five-year trend distinguishes a structural problem from a cyclical one - construction firms across Asia-Pacific are not simply having a bad year.
Year-on-year, transportation and logistics saw the steepest decline, with days receivable climbing by four, while semiconductors slipped by three. Chemicals and electrical products were among the few sectors to improve.
The report also flags stark differences within the same industry depending on where a company operates. In engineering and construction, companies in China averaged 194 days receivable versus 73 days in Australia - a 121-day gap within a single sector. Transportation and logistics businesses in Thailand saw collection times jump by 29 days to 84, compared with just 41 days in South Korea.
"Even within the same sector, businesses can have very different working capital outcomes," said Ankit Tambe, Aon's head of trade credit for credit solutions in Asia. Comparing performance against peers, he said, can help companies identify ways to improve liquidity, support investment and build financial resilience.
The Atradius observation about risk concentrating in weaker firms is the signal brokers advising corporate clients in engineering, construction, logistics and pharmaceuticals should be tracking most carefully. A 143-day average collection cycle in construction, combined with elevated financing costs, means the companies most exposed to slow-paying counterparties are also those least able to absorb the cash flow impact while waiting out the collection period.
For brokers with clients in high-receivables sectors - particularly construction and engineering in China, or logistics in Thailand - the working capital pressure described in this data is a direct entry point for a conversation about trade credit insurance and receivables-backed financing. Both instruments allow companies to secure faster access to capital without waiting out a slow-paying customer; trade credit insurance also provides protection against outright non-payment, which becomes more relevant as the Atradius data shows strain concentrating in weaker counterparties rather than spreading evenly across the market. The time to have that conversation is before a slow-paying counterparty becomes a solvency question, not after.
