Mining production in South Africa slumped 7.5% year-on-year in February 2019, following a 3.3% decline in January and beating market expectations of a 3.5% fall. It is the sharpest decrease in mining activity since March 2016 when it shrank 17.4%. Output fell for gold (-20.6% vs -22.8% in January); iron ore (-20.7% vs -27.7%); diamonds (-48.3% vs -36.9%); other non-metallic minerals (-13.5% vs 7%); chromium ore (-8.3% vs -7.9%); building materials (-4.7% vs 15.3%); coal (-1.8% vs -5.4%) and manganese ore (-1.5% vs 19.7%). Also, output slowed for platinum group metals (PGM) (17.8% vs 28.1%); nickel (20.2% vs 21.4%); other metallic minerals (9.1% vs 18.6%) while it grew further for copper (42.1% vs 40.8%). On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, mining production went down 1.5%, after showing no growth in January. Mining Production in South Africa averaged -0.08 percent from 1981 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 23.20 percent in October of 2013 and a record low of -17.40 percent in March of 2016.
Mining Production in South Africa is expected to be -1.82 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Mining Production in South Africa to stand at -1.40 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the South Africa Mining Production is projected to trend around 1.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.