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Total manufacturing sales volumes fell 1 per cent in the June quarter, mainly due to a fall in meat and dairy product manufacturing, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) says.
Meat and dairy product manufacturing volumes fell 9.4 per cent, or $355 million, following two quarters of rises.
Excluding meat and dairy product manufacturing, sales volumes rose 1.8 per cent, with basic metal manufacturing contributing half of that rise, up 22 per cent ($103m), SNZ said.
Other main volume increases were an 11 per cent rise ($59m) for transport equipment manufacturing, and a 10 per cent ($56m) rise for petroleum and industrial chemical manufacturing.
Wood product manufacturing volumes were down 3.8 per cent ($37m) for the quarter, and 11 per cent over three quarters.
Seasonally adjusted total manufacturing sales were down 0.6 per cent in the June quarter, following an increase of 3 per cent in the March quarter.
Meat and dairy product manufacturing sales were down 8.9 per cent ($572m) in the June quarter, the largest percentage decrease in almost 10 years, SNZ said.
That offset some of the large rise of 40 per cent ($1.83 billion) during the previous two quarters
Excluding meat and dairy manufacturing, sales were up 3.1 per cent in the June quarter, after falling 0.2 per cent in the March quarter.
The manufacturing sales trend continued to rise, but the rate of increase appeared to have eased in the June quarter, following relatively strong increases from the September 2007 to March quarters, SNZ said.
- NZPA
