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SA reminded of manufacturing sector's poor state of health
Writing in Engineering News, the publication's editor Terence Creamer says that South Africans were given another reminder recently about the poor state of health of its manufacturing sector. "Despite warnings that the output improvements of January and February might not be sustainable," hew says, "it nevertheless came as something of a shock to learn that manufacturing output fell by 4.3% month-on-month in March, and by 2.7% year-on-year."
The output decline, Creamer says, came against the backdrop of forward-looking indicators suggesting that the feeble March performance was likely to continue into April and possibly for much of the rest of the year. "Weak demand from Europe and slower growth in some emerging markets are likely to undermine export sales, while domestic demand is unlikely to shoot out the lights, particularly in the current gap period between government's infrastructure promises and actual delivery."
In many ways, South Africa's manufacturing sector is not a million miles away from where it was prior to the 2009 recession, which saw manufacturing businesses shed about 200 000 jobs. "Sadly, the current weakness is also part of a chronic problem," Creamer says in his Engineering News article, adding that manufacturing sector's contribution of to the total output of the South African economy has been falling since the mid-1970s.
Read the full article on www.engineeringnews.co.za.
