Meat and dairy dampen manufacturing sales

The meat and dairy product manufacturing industry dominated the seasonally adjusted total manufacturingsales decrease of 2.1 percent for the September 2007 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.

This industry decreased 6.0 percent compared with the June 2007 quarter, its largest fall since the June 2005quarter.

Manufacturing sales at December 1997 quarter prices (reflecting volume changes) decreased 4.2 percentduring the September 2007 quarter, only the second decline in the past two years and the largest sincethe start of the series.

Again meat and dairy product manufacturing led the decrease with a volume fall of12.1 percent.

The manufacturing sales trend has flattened in the past year, since the September 2006 quarter.

This follows a period of general growth between the June 2003 and September 2006 quarters of 16.1percent.

With the exclusion of the meat and dairy product manufacturing industry, the manufacturing sector recordeda decrease of 0.8 percent, following consecutive rises for the March and June 2007 quarters.

Structural,sheet and fabricated metal product manufacturing led the decrease, partially offset by an increase forthe transport equipment manufacturing industry