Spanish industrial sales in August fell 0.3% year on year on a non-adjusted basis and 2.9% on an adjusted basis, weighed by reduced sales of coal and refined products, the country's statistics institute said Tuesday.
Coal sales in August fell 53.4% year on year to 44.1 points on the 2010-based index, while sales of refined products dropped 24.5% over the same period to 111.6 points, according to Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas (INE).
August is a traditional holiday month in Spain with parts of the industrial sector closed for the entire month.
In other sectors, there were small increases on the year.
Sales of manufactured goods rose 10.7% to 58.0 points, with vehicle sales up 13.0% at 56.5 points and sales of metallic products for construction and containers up 10.7% at 59.5 points.
Sales of intermediate goods also increased 4.3% year on year to 72.1 points, led by rubber and plastics, up 5.6% at 71.5 points, while chemical sales increased 0.8% to 82.9 points and iron, steel and alloy sales rose 0.4% year on year to 63.5 points.
In the first eight months of the year, Spanish industrial sales have increased 1.6% year on year, the institute said.
ORDERS SURGE
New orders for Spanish industrial products showed a similar pattern in August, with a decline for the energy component offsetting increases elsewhere.
Nonetheless, a strong performance from both manufactured and intermediate goods saw that new orders in August increased 4.2% year on year to 82.7 points, which was a 1.7% increase in adjusted terms and the seventh consecutive monthly increase, INE said.
Leading the increases, vehicle orders rose 45.5% year on year to 95.1 points, with rail, air and sea vehicles gaining 41.4% year on year to 82.9 points.
There were also gains for metallic products for construction or containers, with new orders up 13.2% at 74.4 points.
In the intermediate goods sector, orders for rubber and plastics increased 5.3% in August to 70.2 points, but there were decreases for iron, steel and alloys, down 0.9% year on year at 63.0 points, and chemicals, down 0.5% on the year at 81.5 points, according to INE.
