KSH: Industrial export sales up, gross output down in ‘13

The volume of industrial production in August, after seasonal adjustments, was up 0.7% month-on-month, while output fell by 0.8% y.o.y. in the first eight months of 2013. 

Industrial export sales rose by 2.2% in the first eight months of 2012 and by 2.6% in August y.o.y. Of the two manufacturing subsections accounting for nearly half of export sales, the export of transport equipment, representing almost 30% manufacturing exports, increased by 14.5% in August.

Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products – the other significant subsection, representing about 17% of manufacturing exports – fell by 12.3% in export volume.

Industrial domestic sales declined by 3.7% in the January-August period and by 6.2% in August y.o.y. Year-on-year, domestic sales of manufacturing dropped by 6.1% in August.

Within industry, production of manufacturing decreased by 0.4% in August y.o.y., while that of relatively statistically insignificant mining and quarrying fell by 22.7%. The output of energy industry (i.e. electricity, gas, steam, air-conditioning supply) was down 9.9% y.o.y.

In August 2013, increases were observed in only three of the 13 manufacturing subsectors, while volume decreases of 0.7% to 15.3% were measured in the other 10. KSH noted that the production of transport equipment, representing almost 25% of manufacturing output, grew by a big 23.2%.

The second largest subsector, manufacture of food, beverage and tobacco products (altogether accounting for about 14% of manufacturing) declined by 3.3%, which KSH primarily ascribed to first a fall in domestic sales giving more than 60% of total sales.

Of manufacturing subsectors, the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal-chemical and botanical products fell at the highest rate of 15.3%, with KSH citing drops in both domestic and export sales.

In August 2013, total new orders in the observed branches of manufacturing grew by 7.4% y.o.y.; the volume of new export orders rose by 9.4%, while that of new domestic orders fell by 5.0%. The volume of total stock of orders outdid August 2012 by 11.4%.

In the first eight months of 2013, the labour productivity of industrial enterprises with five or more employees declined by 1.1% y.o.y. a 0.3% increase in the number of employees.