The Monetary and Banking Research Institute (MBRI) has reported an increase in manufacturing by companies listed in the stock market.
Its new report covered 280 companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange and Iran Fara Bourse, the junior equities exchange.
The companies accounted for almost half the industrial output and their performance is a gauge of the overall domestic production level, the MBRI said on its website.
Accordingly, the industrial production index (IPI) in the eighth calendar month to November 22 was up 6.5% on the corresponding month last year. IPI in the month to Oct 22 climbed 7.7% -- the highest in 12 months.
Also known as the industrial output index or industrial volume index, IPI is a business cycle indicator that measures monthly changes in price-adjusted output of industry at regular intervals, usually monthly.
Sectoral indices showed that the IPI jumped in the auto and machinery sectors while paper production and food industries declined.
Annual IPI for the auto and spare part industries grew 27.8% in the month, which was up 15.5% from the month before. Textile industries registered 20.4% growth, up 0.6% from the previous month.
Likewise, the machinery and equipment index improved over the previous month by 15.5% -- up 5.9% from the month before.
Basic metals, non-metallic minerals, electronic products, oil derivatives, tire and plastic, metal and pharmaceuticals were also of the ascending order.
However, paper output declined 13.7% in the month – up 1% compared to the preceding month.
Annual food industry output fell 5.8% posting 12.5% decline on the month before and chemical industries lost 2.6% on the same period last year.
Inventories Down
The MBRI report showed overall decline in the inventories of industries in the month to Nov 22 suggesting that demand for goods was higher.
Warehouse inventory is the collection of all materials and goods stored, whether for use to complete the production process or for sale to the customer.
Inventories rise if production is higher than sales in a particular period of time and vice versa.
Overall inventory index dropped 4.2% to the month and was down 3.7% in the three months ending Nov 22. It was also down 1.9% on an annualized basis.
Profits Rise
The report reflected on profitability of listed companies in the first half of the current fiscal year, reporting 20% growth.
In sum, there were 56 loss-making companies in the first nine months of last year -- up 17% on the corresponding period a year ago. Of the 466 firms reviewed 49 were in the red in the first half of the fiscal year.
Oil products topped the list in terms of profitability with a robust 173% growth in six months.
Unexpectedly, the auto and spare part companies were not among loss-making firms ranking after oil with 85% increase in profit. Of the 34 companies in the key sector, eight reported loss in the first half of the last fiscal year ending Sep 22.
Automakers reported 30% decline in profit during the previous fiscal year (March 2021-22) topping the industrial list while food companies’ growth was 61.2% during the said period.
Basic metals were the laggards in terms of profitability during the six months and declined 13.2%. Of the 41 companies in the sector five reported losses.
The highest number of loss-making companies were in the chemical industry as 11 out of 62 firms recorded zero profit during the period.
