Star 2023-02-02

SLOWING demand and heightened load shedding has seen manufacturing activity in South Africa remaining largely flat albeit at a seven-month high at the beginning of 2023. However, manufacturers are expecting business conditions in six months’ time to improve significantly as the global economy looks set to weather the storm of a deep recession. The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), released yesterday, came in at 53 index points in January, virtually unchanged from 53.1 points in December 2022. The PMI – conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) on behalf of Absa – was ahead of consensus expectations of 52.1 points. It was the third successive month of modest expansion in manufacturing activity, despite rolling power cuts. In January, Eskom implemented load shedding right through the month, sometimes…

LOW COST AIRLINE FlySafair is adding to its capacity as it aims to add three new aircraft in the next two months and hire more crew. FlySafair spokesperson Kirby Gordon told Business Report in an interview this week that the airline’s purchase of new aircraft would allow it to offer additional options to customers and keep fares lower. FlySafair is rapidly growing its market share after the collapse of airline Comair and as budget airline Mango’s business rescue process appears to have stalled, leaving it out of the market. “Another highlight for us heading into 2023 is the fact that we’ve been awarded the rights to start operating a number of regional routes to neighbouring countries. We already operate a service to Mauritius and we’re busy working on a few…

Aggregate domestic new vehicle sales in January reflected an increase of 4.8% SOUTH Africa’s automotive industry has lamented the prolonged energy crisis for slowing the momentum in new vehicle sales in January as the crippling power cuts have put brakes on economic activity. The Automotive Business Council (Naamsa) yesterday said that the destructive higher stages of load shedding had amplified the negative impact on vehicle production and component manufacturing in South Africa. This comes as struggling power utility Eskom intensified its rotational power cuts last month, making January 2023 the worst month in terms of the cumulative amount of load shedding the country has ever experienced in a period of a month by far. Naamsa chief executive Mikel Mabaso said that load shedding had severely impacted not only car…

PRESIDENTS of Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal are to join Infrastructure development stakeholders at the Dakar Financing Summit. Four presidents have confirmed their attendance at the Dakar Financing Summit this week. These are his excellency Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, his excellency William Ruto of Kenya, his excellency Paul Kagame of Rwanda and host President, his excellency Macky Sall of Senegal. The 2nd Dakar Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure Development (DFS-2) will be held in Dakar, Senegal, at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre (Cicad) from February 1 to 3. Under the theme, “Maintaining the momentum towards world-class infrastructure in Africa,” the summit seeks to catalyse public, private and blended funding for identified priority infrastructure projects. Specifically, it aims to generate and galvanise private sector interest in specific regional infrastructure…

FNB, WITH ITS $1.5 billion (about R26bn) brand value, is the strongest bank brand in the world, with Capitec Bank in second place, according to a matrix of factors including value, financial and environmental, social and governance factors, brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance said yesterday. According to Brand Finance’s brand strength index (BSI), FNB was the strongest bank brand with a score of 93 out of 100 and a corresponding AAA+ rating. “FNB has a strong presence in South Africa, with branches and ATMs in many cities and towns across the country. FNB has also been recognised for its sustainable practices, receiving awards for its environmental, social and governance performance. “The bank has also been consistently ranked among the top banks on the continent in terms of innovation, customer…

DIAMOND miner De Beers said consumer demand for diamond jewellery over the 2022 end-of-year holiday season performed well, as it sold $450 million (R7.84 billion) of rough diamonds in the first of ten sales cycles this year.This compares with the $660m of rough diamonds sold in the first sales cycle of 2022 and the $417m of rough diamonds sold in the tenth sales cycle of 2022. De Beers Group chief executive Bruce Cleaver said: “Consumer demand for diamond jewellery over the 2022 end-of-year holiday season performed well. As expected, given the macroeconomic outlook at the time, sightholders took a cautious approach in late 2022 in planning their 2023 allocation schedule, with a greater weighting of goods to be purchased as the year progresses. “While there is still some…