South Africa’s manufacturing output growth slowed by an unadjusted 3,3% in volume terms year-on-year in July after expanding by a downwardly revised 5,7% in June, official data showed on Thursday.
Compared with June, manufacturing production in volume terms shrank slightly by a seasonally adjusted 0,4% in July, Statistics South Africa said.
Manufacturing volume growth was 0,2% in the three months to July compared to the previous three months, also on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Stats SA said among the major manufacturing sectors, the gainers in the first seven months of 2008 compared with the same period a year ago were basic chemicals (25,6%), electrical machinery (13,6%) and structural metal products (12,7%).
The losers were household appliances (-6%), general purpose machinery (-6,3%), publishing (-6,7%) and sawmilling (-8%).
The data showed that total sales of manufactured goods lifted 29,5% y/y in July to R122,3-billion.
Stats SA said the estimated seasonally adjusted manufacturing production for the three months to July 2008 increased slightly by 0,2% compared with the
previous three months.
Higher production levels were reported by four of the ten manufacturing divisions.
The major contributors were the petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products division (+0,8 of a percentage point), followed by the food and beverages division (+0,4 of a percentage point) and the furniture and ”other” manufacturing division (+0,3 of a percentage point). – Reuters, I-Net Bridge