South Africa’s mining down for thirteenth consecutive month

According to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), the domestic mining production experienced its thirteenth consecutive month of year-on-year decline, recording a decrease of 5.0% in February 2023.

StatsSA said that largest negative contributors were coal (down 12.6%, contributing -3.7 percentage points) and diamonds (down 45.3%, contributing -2.5 percentage points); this was partly offset by increased production of iron ore (up 30.6%, contributing 3.1 percentage points).

The country’s seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 4.9% in February 2023 compared with January 2023. This followed month-on-month changes of 3.3% in January 2023 and 0.6% in December 2022.

The agency added that South Africa’s seasonally adjusted mining production decreased by 0.3% in the three months ended February 2023 compared with the previous three months.