{"id":840209,"date":"2025-10-17T09:16:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T07:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=840209"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:02:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:02:03","slug":"470-boost-for-one-of-south-africas-most-important-industries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/840209\/470-boost-for-one-of-south-africas-most-important-industries\/","title":{"rendered":"470% boost for one of South Africa’s most important industries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While mining production in South Africa declined in August, sales have increased dramatically over the last year amid a rise in commodity prices, especially gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA\u2019s latest data showed that mining production dropped by 0.2% in August 2025 annually, while it also contracted by 1.2% month-on-month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came from a relatively strong July, when mining output rose by 5.1% y-o-y and 1.2% m-o-m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most significant negative contributors to the weaker August outcome were platinum group metals, gold and manganese ore, all dropping by around 3% annually.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Bureau for Economic Research\u2019s Katrien Smuts said that the story is more positive when considering total sales in current prices. Sales reflect the benefit of higher commodity prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile very volatile on a month-to-month basis, it was remarkable that gold sales rose by 471% y-o-y and PGMs by 44%,\u201d said Smuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommodity prices have continued to rise in September and October, which should support robust nominal growth over these months.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold has seen remarkable growth amid global uncertainty, as investors and central banks target the limited resource. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncertainty has risen due to rising geopolitical tensions following the introduction of heavy US tariffs and the recent US government shutdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of rising geopolitical tensions, many investors are also factoring in aggressive rate-cut bets and the weakness of the US dollar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While not at the same level as gold prices, PGM, of which South Africa has nearly 80% of the world\u2019s supply, has risen dramatically following a troubling few years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PGM\u2019s rise in price has been linked to the production struggles in South Africa, which have been impacted<\/a> by limited investment in new mines, high operating costs and a lack of mergers and acquisitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the price rise for commodities, it will be a challenge for miners to increase their output. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, whether commodity price translates into volume growth remains uncertain, as it is often difficult to ramp up production on such short notice,\u201d said Smuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not the only mixed bag<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Retail sales in South Africa also moderated in August relative to July 2025, declining by 1.2%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mining was not the only sector to see mixed results in August, with retail sales also moderating in August relative to July 2025, declining by 1.2%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, retail sales on an annual basis were up by 2.3% year, even if this was slower than the 5.7% annual increase in July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmong the retailer types, all other retailers and hardware, paint, and glass outlets performed relatively well, contributing positively to overall growth,\u201d said Smuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn contrast, sales of food, beverages, and tobacco declined in August and detracted from total retail trade performance.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real wholesale trade increased by 1% monthly and 1.7% annually in August. Smuts noted that wholesale trade volumes have trended sideways for the past two years in real terms despite the improvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motor trade sales have continued to perform well in August, rising steadily across 2025. Motor trade sales increased 0.5% monthly and 1.9% yearly in August 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a seasonally adjusted basis, new vehicle sales, used vehicle sales and income from fuel sales on a monthly basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, workshop income and two other categories contracted in August, which hurt the overall growth rate.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mining Stats from Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Retail Sales Stats from Stats SA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While mining production in South Africa declined in August, sales have increased dramatically over the last year amid a rise in commodity prices, especially gold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":769818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[1809],"class_list":["post-840209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840222,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840209\/revisions\/840222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}