The large-scale manufacturing (LSM) increased 8.2 percent year-on-year in January, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) stated.
As per the data, during the first seven months (July-January) of the current financial year, LSM showed an increase of 7.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in line with the new base.
Since July 2020, the LSM has recovered during the Covid-19 pandemic, mostly in the construction, textile, automobile, food, non-metallic mineral products, chemicals, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Production of 11 items was dipped by 1 percent under the Oil Companies Advisory Committee year-on-year in January. The 36 items under the Ministry of Industries and Production increased by 8.5 percent, whereas 65 items surged by 9.3 percent as reported by the provincial bureaus of statistics.
Read more: Large scale manufacturing grows by modest 3.56% in July-Oct FY22
Moreover, the automobile sector, excluding motorcycles surged in January as compared to the same period last year. Production of tractors increased by 56.2 percent, trucks by 246.4 percent, cars and jeeps by 30.8 percent, buses 62.7 percent, and LCVs by 32.3 percent. While the production of motorcycles dipped by 3.6 percent.
Meanwhile, in the non-metallic mineral region, the production of cement output in January 2022 dipped by 18.1 percent. Whereas, the production of glass plates and sheets up by 163.1 percent. In the steel sector, billets and ingots recorded an increase in 25.9 percent.
The fertilizer sector in large scale manufacturing index reported a growth of the production of phosphate fertilizers to be 117.7 percent in January and nitrogen fertilizers 21.3 percent.
In pharmaceuticals, the tablets’ output fell by 29.8 percent, capsules by 60 percent, and injection by 50 percent. Conversely, the output of syrups grew by 91.4 percent while ointment was up 15.1 percent.
In contrast, the production of cooking oil showed positive growth of 19.4 percent, tea blended surged by 15.2 percent in January last year, whereas wheat and grain milling output grew by 4.3 percent and sugar 12.2 percent.
Furthermore, the production of petroleum items dipped by 0.7 percent in January. The output of petrol decreased by 2.8 percent and that of high-speed diesel surged by 2.5 percent, while furnace oil production dipped by 8.3 percent.
The LPG production showed a growth of 2.7 percent, as per the PBS data.
