The seasonally-adjusted PMI sponsored by SA bank Absa rose to 52.2 points in September from 49.5 in August.<\/p>\n
It was only the second time this year that the PMI has been above 50 points, reflecting an expansion in activity.<\/p>\n
“The domestic market drove the recovery as global demand remained under pressure and is complicated by steep United States (US) tariffs, a challenging trading environment, and lingering SA port issues,” Absa said in a statement accompanying the survey’s results.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump imposed a 30% tariff on SA exports to the US in August, the highest rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, a move that could cause tens of thousands of job losses in sectors like agriculture and car making.<\/p>\n
The business activity and new sales orders sub-indices rose strongly, reflecting the rebound in local demand.<\/p>\n
But another sub-index pointed to slower deliveries, as respondents cited logistical hurdles like export paperwork delays, and one tracking expected business conditions in six months’ time dropped sharply.<\/p>\n
Absa said there was growing uncertainty about the near-term outlook given global headwinds.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12475,"template":"default||default||default||default||default||default||default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-12474","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.","published_date":"2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00||2025-10-01 00:00:00","news_description":"South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.||South African (SA) manufacturing sentiment improved in September, driven by strong domestic demand, a purchasing managers' index (PMI) survey showed on Wednesday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18064,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12474\/revisions\/18064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}