ISLAMABAD: Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) posted a growth of 5.9 per cent in May 2015 from a year ago, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Wednesday.

The growth in the industrial output has witnessed a decelerated trend in the past few months mainly due to weak export of cotton yarn, gas shortages and sector speciñcfactorslike closureof large chip board plant and substitution of domestic production of edible oil with imports.

The growth in May was the outcome of sub-sectors, which witnessed a nominal outcome led by textile 0.50pc, petroleum products 13.07pc, pharmaceuticals 11.35pc, chemicals 11.08pc, non-metallic mineral products 4.52pc, automobiles 37.06pc, fertilisers 14.03pc, leather products 6.35pc and rubber products 6.29pc, according to PBS data.

The sectors which witnessed a negative growth included electronics 7.77pc, paper and board 20.84pc, engineering products41.76pc and wood products 20.34pc.

During July-May 2014-15, the LSM sector grew by 3.3pc from a year ago.

According to an of ficial report, the low manufacturing growth was mainly because of cotton yarn production witnessing both demand and supply issues.

Export demand for cotton yarn has remained low since last year, especially after the reversal of cotton policy by China.

China has been building cotton stocks since 2011 by of fering higher than competitive prices to local farmers.

The consequent widening of gap between international and local prices encouraged Chinese manufacturers to increase their imports of cotton yarn and its byproducts.

In March 2014, the Chinese government introduced a major shift by paying the price differential to farmers, if market price falls from a target level, which was significantly smaller than the price at which the government was earlier buying from the market.

On supply side, gas shortagewas another drag on yarn manufacturing.

Industry specific data showed that some sub-sectors didn`t perform well in May 2015 over the corresponding month of last year.

In electronic and electrical goods, production of refrigerators recorded a positive growth of 1.29pc; deep freezers 1.65pc, air conditioners 11.49pc, switch gears 41.86pc, storage batteries 23.25pcand bicycles10.98pc.

However, the production of electric bulbs declined by 14.88pc, fans 15.94pc, electric motors 14.68pc; electric meters 55.27pc, transformers 28.07pc; and television sets 0.93pc.

In food sector, a negative growth of 0.28pc was witnessed in vegetable ghee and 9.32pc in cooking oil production during the month under review.

However, the production of tea was up by 8.79pc.

As for the automobile sector, the production of trucks was up by 113.83pc, tractors 2.88pc, buses 100pc, jeep and cars 47.92pc, light commercial vehicles 175.15pc and motorcycles 5.28pc.