Manufacturing continues to rise

The volume of manufacturing sales rose 1.9 percent (seasonally adjusted) in the March 2011 quarter, building on the 3.7 percent rise in the December 2010 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. 

"It appears manufacturing volumes continue to rise after reaching their lowest level in more than 10 years,” business statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver said.

Increases were recorded for nine of the 13 industries, while four decreased.

“Unusually, this quarter’s rise was driven by industries other than meat and dairy product manufacturing,” Mrs Holmes-Oliver said. The main contributors to the rise in the volume of manufacturing were:

• transport equipment, machinery, and equipment manufacturing (up 11.9 percent)
• chemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing (up 5.0 percent)
• wood and paper product manufacturing (up 4.1 percent).

Partly offsetting these volume rises was a 12.9 percent fall in the printing industry and a 3.3 percent fall in petroleum and coal product manufacturing.

In current prices, the seasonally adjusted value of sales increased 2.9 percent.

Statistics NZ assessed the impact of the 22 February Christchurch earthquake on the March 2011 quarter manufacturing statistics. We are confident that the quality of the results has not been affected. For more information refer to the Economic Survey of Manufacturing: March 2011 quarter.

Quarterly manufacturing statistics are not produced at regional levels. While a small number of surveyed businesses in Christchurch were adversely affected by the 22 February earthquake, we are not able to estimate the overall effect on Christchurch manufacturing.

Users should note that gross domestic product will continue to be presented using ANZSIC 1996 industry classification until mid-2012, so industry coverage in the Gross Domestic Product: March 2011 information release will differ from that in this release.

Dallas Welch (Mrs) 20 June 2011

Acting Government Statistician