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Johannesburg - The physical volume of manufacturing in South Africa in January declined by -11.1% year-on-year (y/y) after a
revised decrease of 7.1% (-7.0% y/y) in December, data provided by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday shows.
The seasonally adjusted manufacturing production for the three months ended January 2009 decreased by 8.1% compared with the previous three months. This is steeper than the 5.8% decrease reported for the previous three-month period up to December 2008, noted Stats SA.
Lower production levels were reported by all ten manufacturing divisions during the latest three months. The decrease was driven mainly by lower production in three divisions, namely basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery (contributing -3.0 percentage points), motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport equipment
(contributing -2.0 percentage points) and petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products (contributing -1.5 percentage points).
The 11.1% decrease in manufacturing production in January 2009 compared with January 2008 was mainly due to lower production in the basic iron and steel, non-ferrous metal products, metal products and machinery division (-21.5% and contributing -4.8 percentage points), followed by the motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport equipment division (-40.3% and
contributing -3.5 percentage points) and the furniture and 'other' manufacturing division (-21.6% and contributing -1.3 percentage points).
The food and beverages division partly counteracted the decrease with a reported increase of 2.5% (contributing 0.4 of a percentage point).
The total value of sales of manufactured products in January was reported down 5.1% y/y to R82.832bn. On a seasonally adjusted basis sales were down 5.1% y/y to R97.963bn.
- I-Net Bridge