From the Newsroom*
São Paulo – The Industrial Hub of Manaus (PIM), in the capital of the state of Amazonas, posted revenues of US$ 2.171 billion in January, an increase of 27.3% over the same month last year. The performance was record for months of January, according to information disclosed on Friday (14) by the Manaus Free Zone Superintendence (Suframa), an organisation connected to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Suframa, according to a press statement, hopes that the domestic market continues heated and boosting the growth of the hub. Exports, according to the organisation, have also grown, rising from US$ 70.15 million in January 2007 to US$ 92.42 million in the first month of this year, an increase of 31.75%.
The result, in the evaluation of the Suframa, shows that the Free Zone is reorganizing itself to recover the volume of exports lost with the exit of mobile telephone production lines that went abroad in and after 2005. In that year, according to the organisation, foreign sales exceeded US$ 2 billion, and mobile phones answered to half of the value.
One of the sectors that have been boosting the performance of the hub is the production of motorcycles. A total of 202,423 motorcycles were produced in January, an increase of 29% over the same month last year.
There was also, according to the Suframa, growth in the production of LCD televisions, 109,523 units produced, growth of almost 500% over January 2007. Audio equipment also presented significant growth (347%), as did car radios (133%), mobile telephones (45%), decoders (28%), LCD computer monitors (22.91%) wrist and pocket watches (19%) and shaving equipment (3%).
With regard to jobs, the companies in the industrial hub employed 99,991 people in January, against 101,023 in December. The Free Zone, according to Suframa, also contributes to the generation of around 400,000 indirect jobs.
*Translated by Mark Ament
