Industry growth stifled

Production in the mining sector contracted by 2.8% last year, according to Henk Langenhoven, chief economist of the Minerals Council South Africa.This was despite some significant improvement during the latter part of the year.“These improvements were not strong or sustained enough to revise the outlook,” said Langenhoven emphasising that mining production had, in fact, not improved significantly at all since 2009.“Structural and logistical constraints such as limited rail and harbour capacity, the increasing cost of and disruptions in electricity supply, and industrial action and community unrest are the main contributing factors,” he said.