Manufacturers’ Mood Darkens After Deadly South African Floods
- Purchasing managers’ index declined to 50.7 in April
- Rapidly increasing input costs could weigh on sentiment
Containers on the road by a container storage facility following heavy rains and winds in Durban, on April 13.
Photographer: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images
A gauge measuring South African manufacturing sentiment dropped the most in nine months in April after the worst flooding in almost three decades left more than 400 people dead, damaged businesses and halted operations at the nation’s biggest port.
Absa Group Ltd.’s purchasing managers’ index, compiled by the Bureau for Economic Research, dropped to 50.7 from 60 a month earlier. That’s the biggest monthly decline and the lowest reading since July, when deadly riots, looting and arson that erupted in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province disrupted supply chains, industrial output and demand for manufactured goods.