Otago-Southland manufacturers repeated another month of "mixed results'', with February remaining in positive, expansionary territory, but easing back to 55.5 points from 56 in January.
Chief executive of the Otago Southland Employers' Association John Scandrett said there could be quite varying feedback from firms within the same industry group.
"Some operators have seen positive activity flow, while others operating in the same sub-sector have witnessed negative performance,'' he said.
Otago and Southland stood at 55.5 for February, the upper South Island at 55.8, the lower and central North Island at 60 and the upper North Island at 52.3 points.
Readings above 50 denote expansion, and below, contraction, in the monthly BNZ-BusinessNZ performance of manufacturing index (PMI).
Mr Scandrett said food and beverage, metal products, and wood and paper operators had experienced "a mixed bag of results'' for February; as similarly reported for January.
"The negative outcomes appear to be based around disproportionate market share, lower than anticipated holiday season product uptake and slow agribusiness sector machinery sales,'' he said.
On the flip side, the positive feedback centred on successful supermarket promotional work, stable product demand and, in one case, strong sales team success in following up on new pricing strategies, Mr Scandrett said.
BusinessNZ's executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard said while January's "sizzling result'' could not be built on, the level of expansion was still healthy in the sector for February.
"This was also supported by the fact that over two-thirds of comments remain positive,'' she said in a statement.
BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said despite the drag being created by the dairy industry, overall indicators like the manufacturing index remained "robust''.
"Extreme weakness in the dairy industry continues to influence parts of manufacturing,'' he said.
That looked set to continue with a further reduction in this season's payout forecast by Fonterra last week.
"Annual dairy industry revenue looks like being more than $7 billion lower than its peak two years ago,'' Mr Steel said.
"We would be more concerned by the dip in the employment indicator this month if it were not for very strong new orders and ongoing underlying strength in broader spending indicators,'' he said.
