Transport unpredictable, electricity unchanged

In the most-recent monthly sectoral report released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), the composite transport index on a month on month basis is down by 20.3 points.
“The composite transport index has been volatile over the last year. As of June 2014 the index stood at 64.0 points, down 20.7 points from the level recorded in June of the preceding year” the agency said in its sectoral report on transport. “This decline was mainly driven by the sea cargo handled which stood at 353,723 tonnes in volume terms during the month of June 2014 representing a decline of 31.3% year on year and 45% month on month,” NSA said. The agency said the the volume of cargo landed slowed in June resulting in the transport sub-sector recording an index level of 54.0, a sharp decline of 62.0% year on year, and a 66.6% month on month. The road cargo index stood at 58.3 points, registering a decline of 22.6% when compared to June 2013, and 8.1% compared to May 2014. Rail cargo and trans-shipped cargo, when compared to the previous month of May 2014 both reported increases, of 38.4% and 39%, respectively. “However, rail cargo when compared to the corresponding month of 2013 registered a decline of 2.5% whereas trans-shipped cargo continued to register an increase of 56.5%,” the agency said. The shipped cargo topped the transport sub-sector in June 2014 with an index level of 103.8 points, representing an increase of 23.8 points year on year but a decline of 34.9 points on a month on month basis.

Meanwhile in other sectoral reports by the agency the electricity sales composite index (ESCI), consisting of domestic and export sales of electricity, remained largely unchanged over the past year, cycling around the index trend level of 115 points. “The composite index of electricity sales for June stood at 116 points. This represents an increase of one point m/m; while y/y the index is up by 3.6 points, translating to a 1% and 3.2% increase, respectively.” “The electricity sector is mainly influenced by domestic sales, which contributed 98.7% to the total electricity sales in June 2014. During the period under review, total sales of 260,302 megawatt hours were recorded, an increase of 3.2% y/y and 1% m/m.” Domestic electricity sales are mainly driven by sales to distributors and mining, recording 188,145 mega-watt hours and 47,670 mega-watt hours in volume terms, respectively. The domestic sales index stood at 118 basis points in June 2014, representing a 5% increase y/y; and 1% m/m. In total, domestic sales recorded 256,963 mega-watt hours in June 2014, up by 2,312 mega-watt hours m/m; and 11,666 y/y. However, the electricity export index in June 2014 stood at 50, representing a decline of 51.7% y/y and an increase of 6.8% m/m in comparison. In volume terms, electricity export sales reached 3,339 mega-watt hours in June 2014.