São Paulo – The Brazilian packaging industry should end the year with a 1% increase in production, even though it has been affected by the slowing down of the world economy. The rate is lower than the average recorded in the last few years, which was 2%, and much lower than the rate recorded last year, which was 10%.
According to projections of the Brazilian Packaging Association (Abre), revenues may reach 45.6 billion reals (US$ ), higher than in 2010 (41.1 billion reals, or US$ ). In the first half, 2.98% more packaging has been produced than in the same period of last year, and in the last 12 months, production grew by 4.18%. The best-performing industries include wooden packaging, with a 15.83% increase, followed by glass packaging (11.69%) and metal packaging (4.38%).
The figures were culled from Estudo Macroeconômico da Embalagem (Macroeconomic Packaging Study), presented this Wednesday (17th) by the analyst Salomão Quadros, of the Brazilian Institute of Economy (Ibre) of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV). To the economist, the worst period for national manufacturers began in July and should end in September, to be followed by a slight recovery shortly.
What is taking place, according to him, is a process of fine-tuning because the pace of production has grown faster than the demand, leaving companies with high stock-up levels. “The demand is showing no signs of picking up, so the only way to lower stock-up levels is to reduce the output,” said Quadros.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
