Manufacturing sees volumes growth
THE manufacturing sector has seen growth in volumes across most product segments in the nine months to September 2021, while output is projected to surge by 6,2 percent for the year to December 2021.
Growth in output across all product segments, including foods, beverages and tobacco, has also been registered in the metallic and non-metallic sub-sectors.
Improved power supply and a good rainy season saw industry’s capacity utilisation improving from 47 percent in 2020 to 56 percent by June this year.
Going forward, the domestic industry’s manufacturing capacity utilisation is expected to close the year at 61 percent, all things being equal.
Manufacturing had been forecast to grow by 7 percent in 2021, but the Treasury has since revised the growth forecast to 6,2 percent.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube told a 2022 prebudget seminar in Victoria Falls that the downgrade was due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Industry was negatively affected by the second wave of Covid-19 in January this year, which saw national shutdown while the third wave in the second quarter also weighed heavily on industry.
Captains of industry have, however, expressed reservations over chances of reaching 61 percent capacity utilisation due to growing power supply disruption.
CZI president Kurai Matsheza confirmed this saying while industry remained optimistic about hitting the target, emerging challenges could turn excitement into anxiety.
“These power cuts are really punishing industry, especially in the manufacturing sector,” Mr Matsheza said.
“The power cuts are disturbing operations and companies have (incurred) serious losses as some of the products have to be thrown away after the production cycle is interrupted by unplanned power disruptions.
“Because of these power outages, the projection we made of capacity utilisation of 61 percent may fail to be achieved,” he said.
Industry has also bemoaned delays in the disbursement of auction funds as one of the major reasons that could affect progress towards year end targets.
The Treasury said it expected the manufacturing sector to continue on an exponential growth trajectory in 2022 with expansion forecast to be around 5,5 percent.-The Herald
