Seasonally adjusted total manufacturing sales volumes fell 1 percent in the June quarter, mainly due to a fall in meat and dairy product manufacturing, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) says.
Meat and dairy product manufacturing volumes fell 9.4 percent, or $355 million, following two quarters of rises.
Excluding meat and dairy product manufacturing, sales volumes rose 1.8 percent, with basic metal manufacturing contributing half of that rise, up 22 percent ($103m), SNZ said.
Other main volume increases were an 11 percent rise ($59m) for transport equipment manufacturing, and a 10 percent ($56m) rise for petroleum and industrial chemical manufacturing.
Wood product manufacturing volumes were down 3.8 percent ($37m) for the quarter, and 11 percent over three quarters.
Seasonally adjusted total manufacturing sales were down 0.6 percent in the June quarter, following an increase of 3 percent in the March quarter.
Meat and dairy product manufacturing sales were down 8.9 percent ($572m) in the June quarter, the largest percentage decrease in almost 10 years, SNZ said.
That offset some of the large rise of 40 percent ($1.83 billion) during the previous two quarters
Excluding meat and dairy manufacturing, sales were up 3.1 percent in the June quarter, after falling 0.2 percent in the March quarter.
The manufacturing sales trend continued to rise, but the rate of increase appeared to have eased in the June quarter, following relatively strong increases from the September 2007 to March quarters, SNZ said.
