The manufacturing sector remains in expansion mode, albeit at a slower pace, as firms took a more cautionary tone in July.<\/p>\n
The BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index fell 5.8 points last month to 54.3 – a reading above 50 indicated the sector was expanding.<\/p>\n
“We acknowledge 54.3 is softer than June’s staggering result, however, some month-on-month volatility in the PMI is common and not an immediate cause for concern,” BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said.<\/p>\n
Production was the strongest at 57.3, followed by deliveries at 55.8 and new orders at 53.3.<\/p>\n
Employment was the weakest sub index, but remained in expansion at 52.8 – indicating some level of job creation in the manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n
Steel said despite the overall expansive theme, there were some “cautionary tales”.<\/p>\n
“Businesses that returned negative commentary cited geopolitical tensions and fuel price volatility as key concerns, while higher raw material costs, inconsistent forward orders, and softer consumer spending serve a reminder of the headwinds facing an otherwise resilient industry,” he said.<\/p>\n
BusinessNZ head of advocacy Catherine Beard said after June’s “exceptional result” it was not a surprise to see momentum ease but conditions were solid.<\/p>\n
“What’s more concerning is the shift in sentiment, with 57 percent of comments being negative,” Beard said.<\/p>\n
“Respondents continue to point to the conflict in the Middle East, high fuel and raw material costs, and a general reluctance from customers to spend, with a number also citing uncertainty ahead of the election.”<\/p>\n
Steel said overall, the numbers suggested the sector started the third quarter positively after a more subdued second quarter due to the US-Iran war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The manufacturing sector remains in expansion mode, albeit at a slower pace, as firms took a more cautionary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-568459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}