JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South African mining production decreased by a worse-than-expected 18% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, after slipping by an upwardly revised 8.3% in February, BNP Paribas Securities South Africa economist Jeffrey Schultz said on Thursday.
The largest negative contributions in the first quarter were platinum-group metals, contributing -4.55 percentage points; coal, contributing -4 percentage points; iron-ore, contributing -1.6 percentage points and gold, contributing -1.2 percentage points.
“Indeed, all 12 subcomponents of mining production tracked by Statistics South Africa recorded negative year-on-year growth, with gold production the only component not to register a double-digit contraction in March,” Schultz pointed out.
“A weak and somewhat uncertain outlook for global commodity prices coupled with suppressed demand and faltering primary sector profitability all continued to weigh on South Africa’s mining sector in the first quarter of this year,” he added.