South Africa’s mining production increased by 7.5% year-on-year in February. The main contributors to the increase were iron-ore, contributing 4.2 percentage points; platinum-group metals (PGMs), contributing 2.8 percentage points; and manganese ore, contributing 1.1 percentage points. Gold made the largest negative contribution of 1.5 percentage points. Further, for February, the highest positive growth rates were recorded for PGMs, at 26.7%; iron-ore, at 22.6%; and manganese ore, at 16.8%, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Thursday. The 7.5% increase in output represented a turnaround from the 2.3% year-on-year contraction recorded in January. “The better-than-expected mining production figures for February need to be seen in context of the weak base production is coming off, bearing in mind that last year’s platinum sector strikes kicked off towards the end of January 2014. “The now negative momentum growth in production continues to point to a sector which remains under a great deal of pressure and, once again, looks unlikely to contribute meaningfully to gross domestic product growth for the first quarter,” commented BNP Paribas economist Jeffrey Schultz. Meanwhile, Stats SA reported that mineral sales for January had decreased by 14.5% year-on-year, with PGMs, iron-ore and gold making the biggest negative contributions of 6.8, 2.9 and 1.7 percentage points respectively. 

• [Editor:Sophie]