Manufacturing firms bullish ….. as capacity utilisation rises to 57%

STAFF WRITER

Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector is showing renewed vitality, with capacity utilisation increasing by 4,1 percentage points to 57,3%in the second quarter of 2025, up from 53,2% in the first quarter, according to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat).

The ZimStat Second Quarter 2025 Business Tendency Survey also revealed that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) operated at 46,5 percent capacity during the same period.

“Overall, the manufacturingsector’s combined capacity utilisation in the second quarter of 2025 was 48,2%, up from 47,7% in the first quarter,” said Kuda Chiguma, ZimStat’s manager of industry statistics, during a virtual presentation of the results.

She added that 25,3% of manufacturers expressed optimism about the business climate, while mining sector capacity utilisation rose slightly to 56%, up from 55,4 percent in the previous quarter.

“About 25 percent of the mining sector respondents also expressed optimism about the general business climate during the period under review,”  Chiguma said.

Half of the manufacturing respondents indicated that production levels remained unchanged, while 23% reported an increase.

“For the mining sector, 70,3% of the respondents perceived that production levels had remained the same over the second quarter of 2025,” she added.

Employment sentiment was largely stable, with 69,4%of manufacturers and 79,1 percent of miners reporting no change in staffing levels.

Order books were viewed as normal by 56,8% of manufacturers and 78% of miners, while only 7% in manufacturing and 2,2% in mining considered finished goods stocks normal for the season.

“Proportions of respondents who viewed second quarter 2025 stocks of raw materials as normal for the season were 51 percent for the manufacturing sector and 18,2% for the mining sector,” said Chiguma.

Looking ahead, 77,5% of manufacturers and 48,4% of miners expect selling prices to remain stable in the third quarter, while 11,1% and 7,7%, respectively, reported faster supplier delivery times.

The industrial output data also points to a significant recovery. The Volume of Manufacturing Index (VMI) rose to 158,25 in the second quarter of 2025 — a 15,45 percent year-on-year increase from 137,07 in 2024.

The foodstuffs sub-sector recorded the most notable growth, with an output index of 190,45, representing a 63,59% increase, while the textiles sub-sector posted a moderate 3,56% rise, climbing to 62,46 from 60,31.