Industrial production spiked in last quarter of 2013, says CAPMAS

Egypt’s industrial production reached LE80.81 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, an annual increase of 6.28 percent, according to the state statistics agency CAPMAS.

Production from October to December in 2013 also outstripped the preceding quarter by 12.54 percent, said the agency’s Quarterly Statistical Bulletin for industrial production, which was released on Wednesday.

The LE80.81 billion figure does not include petroleum production, which along with coke, a carbon-based industrial fuel, amounted to 17.81 percent of the total value of industrial production for that quarter, according to CAPMAS. Nor does it include production by companies with fewer than 25 employees — and according to 2012 study by the German Development Institute, more than 92 percent of Egyptian companies have fewer than five employees.

But despite the limitations of the data set, the bulletin from CAPMAS shows some interesting trends. Food products, which CAPMAS says accounted for 10.55 percent of the value of industrial production, amounted to LE18.07 billion, up almost 20 percent from LE15.08 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The cement, brick and glass industries recorded a collective production value of LE10.16 billion. This represents an 11.58 percent year-on-year increase, and a 45.46 percent increase compared to the production value from July to September 2013, which amounted to just LE6.99 billion.

CAPMAS attributes the higher production to more stable energy supplies, which are critical for these energy-intensive industries. Throughout the summer of 2013, producers complained production was hit hard by fuel shortages, a problem that returned in the early months of 2014.

However, iron and steel production, which also requires vast amounts of energy, saw their production value decrease slightly. Fourth quarter production amounted to LE9.20 billion, down 0.88 percent from LE9.28 billion in the third quarter, and 2.86 percent below the LE9.47 billion in production in the fourth quarter of 2012.