Manufacturing production up 3%

Manufacturing production in SA increased by 3.0% year-on-year (y/y) in August after an upwardly revised 6.3% (5.8%) y/y rise in July‚ data released by Statistics SA on Thursday showed.

The 3.0% y/y increase in manufacturing production in August 2012 was mainly due to higher production in the following divisions:

• Petroleum‚ chemical products‚ rubber and plastic products (4.7% y/y);
• Wood and wood products‚ paper‚ publishing and printing (9.9% y/y);
• Basic iron and steel‚ non-ferrous metal products‚ metal products and machinery (4.2% y/y).
Seasonally adjusted manufacturing production in the three months ended August 2012 increased by 0.9% compared with the previous three months. Seven of the ten manufacturing divisions reported positive growth rates over this period.
The largest contributions to the increase of 0.9% were made by the following divisions:
• Motor vehicles‚ parts and accessories and other transport equipment (3.2%);
• Food and beverages (2.2%);
• Wood and wood products‚ paper‚ publishing and printing (2.7%).

These increases were counteracted by lower production for the basic iron and steel‚ non-ferrous metal products‚ metal products and machinery division (-1.4%).