Volume of Production and Net Sales

Volumes of production and net sales increased by 4.2 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively compared to the same month last year according to the preliminary results of the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI).

Wood & wood products, tobacco, wearing apparel and electrical machinery posted increases in volume of production and net sales after recording negative growth rates last year. This can be attributed to the resumption of operation of key establishments and increase in demand of the products.

Value of Production and Net Sales

Compared to the same month last year, values of production and net sales increased by 11.2 percent and 20.1 percent, respectively.

Wood & wood products, tobacco, wearing apparel, paper & paper products and food manufacturing which recorded negative growth rates in value of production and net sales last year posted increases in September 1999.

Capacity Utilization

About 48.7 percent of the total responding establishments operated below 70% capacity. Eleven out of 16 sectors showed declines in their capacity utilization in September 1999.

Value of Production

In September 1999, the value of production index (VaPI) of 541.9 increased by 11.2 percent from 487.5 in September 1998. Year-on-year increases were observed in 11 out of 16 major sectors (See Annex 1A). Wood & wood products posted the highest year-on-year VaPI increase of 102.5 percent due to the increase in production of plywood. This can be attributed to the increase in both domestic and export demand for the product. Other sectors that posted double-digit increases were transport equipment (69.7%), furniture & fixtures (21.3%), electrical machinery (15.2%), and tobacco (14.0%). On the other hand, basic metals reported the biggest decline of 44.4 percent. Other sectors that posted decreases were chemicals/plastic & plastic products (-17.9%), textile (-15.2%), non-metallic mineral products (-10.5%), and rubber products (-12.8%). Decreases in these sectors can be attributed to the slowdown in production due to, among others, the continuing low demand for construction-related industries resulting to partial shutdown of machinery, lack of imported raw materials in the chemicals sector.

Volume of Production

The volume of production index (VoPI) increased by 4.2 percent to 149.5 from 143.5 last year. Eight out of 16 sectors posted year-on-year increases led by wood & wood products which increased by 105.9 percent (See Annex 1B). Other sectors which contributed to the increase of the overall VoPI were transport equipment (64.8%), tobacco (16.5%), electrical machinery (15.4%), other manufacturing industries (14.4%), furniture & fixtures (9.8%), food manufacturing (2.9%) and wearing apparel (0.9%).

Value of Net Sales

The value of net sales for September 1999 increased by 20.1 percent compared to last year. Twelve out of 16 sectors posted increases led by wood & wood products which increased by 81.7 percent (Se Annex 2A). Other sectors that recorded increases were petroleum products (41.7%), tobacco (31.1%), electrical machinery (26.2%), wearing apparel (17.4%), transport equipment (16.9%), food manufacturing (14.4%), chemicals (12.4%), textile (11.0%), basic metals (6.9%), miscellaneous manufactures (3.6%) and paper & paper products (3.3%). On the other hand, rubber products posted the biggest decline of 22.9 percent. Other sectors that posted decreases were non-metallic mineral products (-22.0%), beverage (-8.1%) and furniture & fixtures (-6.3%).

Volume of Net Sales

The volume of net sales for September 1999 posted an increase of 11.9 percent over last year. Increases were observed in ten sectors led by wood & wood products, which increased by 84.7 percent (Se Annex 2B). Other sectors that posted increases were tobacco (33.9%), electrical machinery (26.4%), food manufacturing (16.3%), basic metals (15.5%), wearing apparel (14.9%), transport equipment (13.5%), petroleum products (12.6%), miscellaneous manufactures (8.3%) and chemicals (5.7%).

Capacity Utilization

Responding establishments operating below 70% capacity were 48.7 percent in September 1999 compared t 40.0 percent a year ago. About 14.1 percent operated at full capacity (90%-100%) compared to 16.8 percent in September 1998.

The following sectors that had decreased use of existing capacity in September 1999 were beverage, tobacco, textile, wood & wood products, furniture & fixtures, paper & paper products, rubber, chemicals, non-metallic mineral products, basic metals and transport equipment. On the other hand, food, wearing apparel, electrical machinery, petroleum products and miscellaneous manufactures showed indications of increasing capacity utilization. Capacity utilization is defined as the ratio of output to the maximum rated capacity of the plant.

Response Rate

The results are based on the responses of 419 establishments, which comprised 75.8 percent of the total samples in the survey.

Source: National Statistics Office
Manila, Philippines