Cement, food and fertilizer industries lead industry gains as textile, paper, vehicle and machinery manufacturers contract.

Bank Indonesia’s (BI) Prompt Manufacturing Index shows that the manufacturing sector’s performance remained expansive at 51.5 percent in the fourth quarter last year, compared to 52.04 percent in the previous quarter. A reading of above 50 percent indicates expansion and below that illustrates contraction.

The highest expansion occurred in the cement and nonmetal mining industry subsector with 57.43 percent, followed by food, beverage and tobacco (52.47 percent), fertilizer, chemicals and rubber-based goods (51.48 percent).

Meanwhile, sectors that border between expansion and contraction are iron and steel basic metals (50.53 percent), as well as wood products and other forestry products (50.36 percent).

Contractions, meanwhile, were seen in the October-December period of 2019 for these sectors: textile, leather goods and footwear at 49.71 percent, paper and printed products (49.01 percent) and transportation, equipment and machinery (47.14 percent).

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) program director Esther Sri Astuti said the flood of imports in several industries was one of the main causes of the slowdown in the manufacturing sector’s business activities. 

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