Agência CNI*
Curitiba – Industrial sales in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná posted growth of 17.03% in the first quarter this year compared with the same period of last year. It was the best quarterly result since 1986, according to the analysis of the Economy Department at the Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná (Fiep), which disclosed its balance for the first three months of the year yesterday (05th). Out of 18 categories surveyed by the FIEP, eleven had positive performance and seven had negative performance.
The positive result in this first quarter is ascribed to the good performance of agroindustrial activity in Paraná, to the vast supply of personal credit for consumption of goods, especially durable ones, and to the expansion of the domestic market, which results from the combination of credit, rising wages and increased employment rate.
Overall employment grew 6.46% on average during the period, and employment directly linked to production rose 3.30%. The sectors that recorded the highest increases in employment level during the period were Oil Refining and Alcohol Production (+36.03%), Machinery and Equipment (+16.02%), Food and Beverage (+13.81%) and Motor Vehicles (+12.22%). The greatest reductions in level of employment directly linked to production during the period occurred in the following categories: Textiles (-24.17%), Clothing (-23.40%), Leathers and Shoes (-12.71%) and Wood (-10.27%).
Performance in March confirms a behaviour typical of the same month in previous years. "After an atypical first two months of heightened industrial activity, when industrial sales grew 23.66% in comparison with 2007, business has begun to flow at their usual rate for this period of the year," stated coordinator Maurílio Schmitt, of the Economy Department at FIEP. According to him, deflated industrial sales grew 4.27% from February to March. "The expansion recorded in March was relatively low, as this is the month when industrial business picks up steam with greater intensity," he asserted. This trend can be verified by the number of industrial categories for which sales increased (14 from a total of 18) and employment level rose (15 out of 18) in March as against February.
On the other hand, the use of installed capacity is two percentage points above the level recorded in the first half of 2007, and currently stands at 79%. According to the economist, the ratio could be even greater if it were not for the ongoing expansion of production capacity that stems from the incorporation of new machinery and equipment at manufacturing plants. "This fact is confirmed by the growth in imports of capital goods (56.49% expansion in 2007 and another 32.59% in this first quarter of 2008)," explains Schmitt. He also states that the Machinery and Equipment category was the one that grew the most in 2007 in Paraná, having posted an expansion of 25.67%, and that it has kept up the good performance in this first quarter of 2008, with growth of 43.75%.
"This expansion of industrial sales should continue throughout this year, albeit at lower levels than those of 2007," said Schmitt. He recalls that up to February, industrial sales recorded an accumulated growth of 23.66% over 2007. In March, though, the percentage dropped to 17.03%, and that trend should continue during the first half of the year.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
