Mining production in South Africa fell more than expected in April, slumping by 14.9 percent year-on-year after a downwardly revised 7.5 percent fall in March, mainly due to the country's ongoing power crisis.
This mining output was worse than market forecasts of a 5 percent decline, and marked the third consecutive month of a downturn in mining activity as the energy crisis weighed in.
This was also the steepest pace since June of 2020, mainly dragged lower by platinum group metals (PGMs), coal and gold.
Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said PGMs was the biggest drag on overall production, falling by 22.6 percent, while coal shrank by 14.7 percent, gold plunged by 27.8 percent, and manganese ore eased by 10.4 percent.
“The country also produced less nickel, chromium ore, copper, manganese ore and diamonds. Iron ore production was flat,” said Stats SA’s principal survey statistician, Juan-Pierre Terblanche.
South Africa is grappling with one of the worst bouts of power cuts, leaving large industries and intensive energy users such as mining in a lurch as production stalls.
From 1 January to 10 May this year, Eskom had implemented loadshedding for 32 days, 6 days more than the 26 days of loadshedding during the same period last year.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, mining production shrank 4.3 percent, following an upwardly revised month-on-month rise of 3.2 percent and a decrease of 5.8 percent in February.
Even though the economy rebounded to pre-pandemic levels at 1.9 percent in the first quarter, the mining industry registered a contraction of 1.1 percent during the period.
BUSINESS REPORT