Kenya
Kenya’s manufacturing sector reported marginal growth, up from 4.5%. The number of jobs related to the sector grew to 5,500, up from 2,200 in the previous year.
The reported growth also fuelled an increased consumption of electricity and fuels. This positive performance also opened the way for increased imports of key intermediate inputs, particularly in the machinery and chemical products areas.
Low priced manufactured imports from competing countries did depress local demand for domestic goods. In addition, the government says the high oil prices had a negative effect on the competitiveness of the locally manufactured products.
India
Dell has announced that its new manufacturing plant in India will be online by the end of 2006. The new facility will accelerate the company’s revenue growth in India above the current 40%.
The location for the new manufacturing plant is expected to be announced in a few weeks.
The facility would be Dell's fourth in the Asia-Pacific region. It has two facilities in China and one in Penang, Malaysia.
UK
Manufacturing investment rose by 7%, and by 12.4 per cent year-on-year, the strongest pick-up since the first quarter of 1998.
The figures are the latest in a series of hints that, although the sector continues to shed jobs, manufacturing is enjoying a revival of activity in the UK as a result of growing international demand for British exports.
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) overall balance of total orders fell back to negative 12 from negative 11 in April, suggesting that domestic orders fell sharply, even as external demand picked up.
Singapore
Singapore's manufacturing output grew by 3% in April, according to figures released by the Economic Development Board (EDB) today.
The output of the precision engineering and the chemicals clusters grew by 5.8% and 4% respectively in April over the previous year.
The output of the biomedical manufacturing cluster contracted by 29.6% in the fourth month this year and that of the general manufacturing industries dropped by 2.2% in the same month.
Total manufacturing output grew by 15.8% in the first four months of this year as compared with the corresponding period of last year.
Ireland
The Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) has reported that factory gate prices decreased by 0.2% in April 2006. This compares to an increase of 1.7% recorded for April of last year. As a result, the annual percentage change showed an increase of 1.7% in April 2006, which compares to an increase of 3.6% in March 2006.
The price of Energy products increased by 9.6% in the year since April 2005, while Petroleum fuels increased by 16.4%. In April 2006, there was a monthly increase in Energy products of 0.5%, while Petroleum fuels increased by 1.9%
