Third-quarter manufacturing index falls 3.6%
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The Office of Industrial Economics (OIE) has announced that the domestic Manufacturing Production Index (MPI) for the third quarter contracted by 3.6 per cent compared with the same period last year amid 64-per-cent capacity utilisation.
September’s MPI fell by 2.9 per cent, with capacity utilisation at 64.02 per cent, on lower output in the automotive sector after the completion of the deliveries of vehicles sold under last year’s government first-car-buyer scheme, said Industry Ministry permanent secretary Vitoon Simachokdee.
The MPI is expected to fall further in the final quarter of the year, by 8.67 per cent compared with the final three months of 2012. At that time, the base used to compute the index was unusually high as the first-car scheme accelerated vehicle outputs, OIE director-general Somchai Harnhirun said.
In the third quarter of this year, the electrical-goods sector shrank 1.12 per cent relative to the same period last year on lower outputs of integrated circuits and computer hard disks. Technology changes affecting this sector are rapid in line with the fast growth of smartphones and tablets.
Production of electrical goods in the fourth quarter is expected to expand by 0.99 per cent, while electronics-sector growth is projected at 0.64 per cent in the final quarter on strong orders for products related to cloud computing and demand for large data storage centres, Somchai said.
In the third quarter of 2013, the iron and steel sector expanded by 8.35 per cent, which is a slow growth rate compared with the first and second quarters. The decline was due to a sharp drop in iron and steel imports after the first-car scheme ended, anti-dumping and safeguard measures, and less stocking of iron and steel inventories by manufacturers for the final quarter, he said.
The textiles and garments sector continued to expand compared with the third quarter of last year thanks to both domestic and overseas demand, especially for made-to-order garments. Local cloth production declined because of higher imports of lower-priced materials from China, Somchai said.
The foods sector grew by 4.6 per cent on improvements in overseas markets for frozen chicken and processed poultry products and 32.6 per cent higher output after measures to curb bird-flu risk, which included a switch to a closed-system method of raising chickens, he noted.
