Alexandre Rocha
São Paulo – Revenues of the Brazilian machinery and equipment sector in the first seven months of the year totalled around US$ 8 billion as against US$ 6.5 billion (figures calculated using the exchange rate of August 16, 2004) in the same period last year, an increase of 22.4%. According to the Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association (Abimaq), this performance is mainly due to the increase in export and to the improvement of the domestic market.
Export totalled an estimated US$ 1,2 billion between January and June this year, as opposed to US$ 878.4 million in the same period in 2003, a growth of 33%. There was also a 13.2% increase in import, which rose from US$ 1.09 billion to US$ 1.24 billion.
According to the Abimaq, the number of jobs in the sector has also risen. The number of machine industry workers rose from 179,496 on July 31 2003 to 200,774 on July 31 2004. There was also an increase of 5.4% in the level of use of installed capacity in the industrial sector, which reached 80.64%.
