PGM output contracts 35.8%y/y and 17.7%m/m s.a.
PGM strike makes its presence felt
Mining production contracted 4.8%y/y (7.0%m/m s.a.) in February, contracting further than Bloomberg consensus estimates for a 0.5%y/y (3.4%m/m s.a.) contraction, from 3.7%y/y growth (revised from 3.1%y/y) in January.
PGM Mining production contracted 4.8%y/y (7.0%m/m s.a.) in February, contracting further than Bloomberg consensus estimates for a 0.5%y/y (3.4%m/m s.a.) contraction, from 3.7%y/y growth (revised from 3.1%y/y) in January.
PGM production emerged as the key drag to mining output in February (fig 2), subtracting a notable 7.6ppts from overall production on the back of a 35.8%y/y contraction (fig 6). This was largely anticipated on the back of the ongoing strike at miners Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin. Non-PGM mining was otherwise fairly resilient, growing by 2.8%y/y in February from 2.9%y/y in January. That said, performances were mixed across the categories of minerals.
Gold production contracted 3.6%y/y in February, subtracting 0.6ppts from overall production. Gold production may have been hampered by work stoppages at Harmony operations in February related to workplace fatalities. Coal production matched its January subtraction of 1.3ppts in February on the back of a 4.8%y/y contraction.
Iron ore production, while having slowed to 7.9%y/y in February from 11.5%y/y in January, was the second largest positive contributor to overall mining production at 1.3ppts, buoyed by favourable base effects after having posted a contraction of 2.4%y/y (4.4%m/m s.a.) in February 2013 from growth of 34.0%y/y (0.9%m/m s.a.) in January 2013.
Y/Y growth in manganese ore was also the likely recipient of favourable base effects after having improved to 37.2% in February from 20.7% in January (contributing 1.9ppts to y/y mining production). Manganese output had fallen sharply to a contraction of 1.4%y/y (6.0%m/m) in February 2013 from strong growth of 15.0%y/y (10.3%m/m s.a.) in January 2013.
Despite their relatively small weight in overall mining output (2.5%), other metallic materials (which include silver, cobalt, lead concentrate, titanium, zinc and others) contributed a notable 1.0ppt to overall production on the back of 71.0%y/y growth.
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