South Africa’s manufacturing, wholesale and retail sectors all fared better in June than they did in May, off a low economic lockdown base of course - but hey, always look on the bright side.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the mining sector, supporting the notion that emerging market growth, usually acting as a stimulus for mineral resource extraction, remains tepid in the face of an ongoing global health crisis.
This comes after it was widely reported earlier this month by several European media outlets that South Africa’s mining output had slumped 47% between March and April.
Manganese and iron ore production alone fell 57.6% and 68.7% respectively.
According to the Bureau for Economic Research (BER), mining production has declined by 28% year-on-year (y-o-y).
Quoting figures released by Stats SA, the Bureau said the 28% decrease in output was slightly worse than the revised contraction of 27.6% y-o-y in May.
“Indeed, mining production declined by 1.4% m-o-m in June, following a sharp recovery of 46.6% in May.”
As for manufacturing, although June pipped May at the post, production was 16.3% lower y-o-y for June, Stats SA found.
The contraction did, however, reflect a recovery from the y-o-y contractions of 49.3% and 32.4% of April and May respectively.
“On a monthly basis, output in the manufacturing industry ticked up by 16.8% (seasonally adjusted), compared to an increase of 30.4% in May. On a quarterly basis (seasonally adjusted and annualised), production contracted by a dramatic 76.2% in Q2 (2nd quarter).”
Mining’s annualised contraction was at the same level, the BER reported, namely 76% in Q2.
