Manufacturers hard hit

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 23

Manufacturers hard hit

PA Wellington The quarterly survey of manufacturing, released yesterday demonstrates what a mauling the manufacturing sector has been going through, the Manufacturers’ Federation says.

“The survey quantifies how ill the local market has been over the last year for local manufacturers and employment prospects in the sector,” the president of the federation, Mr Barry Brill, said. “The figures show what a black scenario we must recover from. It shows manufacturers’ sales increased in the last quarter of 1988 by half a per cent more than they were for the same period a year earlier. “Taking inflation into account this represents a 3.5 per cent drop for the period. “When all food categories are taken out of consideration, the true state of industry emerges — an over-all drop of about 9 per cent for the quarter in the sector which generates annually sales of $32 billion. “If our exports had not become more competitive towards the end of 1988 when the exchange rate went down, the outlook would be much worse.” On the latest December quarter total value of sales and other income was $8362.6 million, the Statistics Department said. In contrast, the December, 1987, quarter was 3.4 per cent higher than the corresponding period of 1986. Increases in the value of sales and other income were reported by three of the 10 industry groups surveyed: primary

food manufacturing, up 19.9 per cent to $1452.9M; other food manufacturing, up 13.1 per cent to $1302.8M; and the basic metal manufacturing industry, up 5.6 per cent to $280.4M. Decreases in the value of sales and other income were reported by textile and clothing manufacturers, down 10.9 per cent to $600.9M and by jion-metallic manufacturing, down 10.7 per cent to $264.5M. Other manufacturing industries were also down 9.5 per cent to $87.9M, while fabricated metal manufacturing was down 6.8 per cent to $1731.1M, paper and printing manufacturing was down 5.5 per cent to $1146.2M, and wood and furniture manufacturing was down 5.1 per cent to $533.9M. Chemical manufacturing was down 3.3 per cent to $962.0M. Salaries and wages paid to employees totalled $1483.4M, a decrease of 2.9 per cent from the previous corresponding quarter. Hours worked by paid employees fell 11.1 per cent to $111,254,000. Total value of manufacturers’ purchases and other operating expenses in the December quarter was 55935.4 M, a decrease of 1.3 per cent. Stocks of materials held at December 31 were valued at 52346.4 M, a decrease of 4.8 per cent when compared with the value reported at December 31, 1987. The value of stocks of finished goods was 52095.9 M, down 6.1 per cent. Additions to fixed assets during the quarter ended December 31 were valued at $476.9M, down 4.9 per cent