Meat and dairy driving total manufacturing down

Meat and dairy driving total manufacturing down

7 June 2017

The volume of meat and dairy product manufacturing fell in the March 2017 quarter, although sales values rose due to higher prices, Stats NZ said today.

After adjusting for seasonal effects and removing price changes, meat and dairy product manufacturing volumes fell 7.8 percent.

"The fall in meat and dairy sales volumes followed a similar fall in the previous quarter," business indicators manager Craig Liken said. "In contrast, sales values were up $77 million, mainly reflecting a rise in dairy product prices."

Overseas Trade Indexes reported export dairy volumes fell 11 percent in the March 2017 quarter, while meat export volumes rose 3.2 percent.

The volume of total manufacturing sales fell 0.3 percent in the March 2017 quarter, after a 2.0 percent fall in the December 2016 quarter.

Excluding meat and dairy, the manufacturing sales volume rose 1.7 percent, following a fall in the December quarter. Sales rose for seven of the 12 other manufacturing industries.

The main industry movements were in:

• petroleum and coal product manufacturing (which is not seasonally adjusted), up 5.7 percent.

• chemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing, up 7.0 percent.

The trend for the total manufacturing sales volume, which gives a longer-term picture of movements, has been mainly rising since mid-2013 but now appears to be easing.

The actual volume of total manufacturing sales was up 0.2 percent on the March 2016 quarter. When price changes are included, the value of manufacturing sales was $25.7 billion in the March 2017 quarter, up $1.5 billion (6.2 percent) from the March 2016 quarter.

For more information about these statistics:

• Visit Economic Survey of Manufacturing: March 2017 quarter

• See CSV files for download

• Open the attached files

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