Omar Nasser, from Fiep*
Curitiba – Industry revenues in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná in 2006 should be 4% higher than last year. The estimate, made by the Department of Economics at the Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná (Fiep), surpasses previous calculations made by the organisation, which pointed to a growth of approximately 3% for this year. The projections were made based on sales in October, which surpassed those in September by 10.91%.
The Department of Economics at Fiep does not disclose data in reais (the Brazilian currency), and its surveys are published with a 40-day delay. The gap occurs due to market-related issues: the information must be collected from the industries and compiled before they are disclosed.
The survey shows that the performance in October is a consequence of an increase in sales for 12 of the 18 items surveyed. The three categories with highest relative participation in the industry of Paraná have shown increase. These are: food products (23.29%), transport material (13.29%) and chemicals (3.95%).
Exports
In the accumulated result of the year, exports from the industry of the state of Paraná have already surpassed the 2005 result by 11%, and should remain the same until the end of the year. According to the International Business Centre at Fiep, from January until September this year, industries in the state of Paraná have exported US$ 365.2 million to the Arab market.
The increase in sales of food products, transport material and chemicals was motivated mainly by the increase in exports of these three items. Foreign sales have increased by 93.39%, 21,40% and 27.55% during the period, respectively.
In the food sector, most exported products were sugar, poultry and pasta for Europe and Japan. Regarding transport material, the determining factor were vehicle exports to Argentina and the United States. In the chemicals sector, the highlight was alcohol exports to the Far East and Russia.
Among the items that saw the greatest decrease in exports are Electric and Communications Materials (-90.97%), Publishing and Graphic Arts (-17.02%) and Textiles (-13.70%).
*Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
