Mining production increases in July, gives economy a lift

JOHANNESBURG - Mining activity has held on to recent gains after another uptick in production, giving the economy some momentum.

Production increased by 4.4 percent year-on-year in July, almost double the gains from the previous month.

This is the third consecutive month upwards for the industry, which had suffered massive losses in the first half of the year.

Stats SA released the latest mining data on Thursday.

Principal survey statistician at Stats SA, Juan-Pierre Terblanche, said the largest positive contributors were iron ore and platinum group metals.

"Iron ore production increased by 12.2% (and contributing 1.7 percentage points) and PGMs rose by 6.2% year-on-year (and contributing 1.7 percentage points). Diamonds, chromium ore and coal were also up but the industry produced less gold, manganese ore and copper and nickel."

Meanwhile, manufacturing production dropped for the first time in two months by 0.7 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

Director of industry statistics at Stats SA, Nicolai Claassen, said that seven of the ten manufacturing divisions pulled the industry down.

"Manufacturers in metals and machinery products recorded a decrease of 3.3% year on year-on-year, subtracting 0.7 of a percentage point from overall manufacturing growth. Wood, paper, printing and publishing was the second biggest drag on growth, declining 1.8% and subtracting 0.2 of a percentage point from overall growth."