The increased pace in the national industrial production, between March and April 2017, in the seasonally adjusted series, occurred in five of the fourteen places surveyed, with a highlight of the 1.2% advance of Santa Catarina which partially offset the 4.0% loss registered last March. Northeast Region (0.6%), Pernambuco (0.6%), Ceará (0.6%) and Minas Gerais (0.5%) close the set of places that had production increase this month, whereas Espírito Santo (0.0%) repeated the level seen in the previous month.

Amazonas (-1.9%), Rio de Janeiro (-1.9%), Paraná (-1.6%) and Goiás (-1.3%) recorded the sharpest negative results, with the first place eliminating part of the expansion of 5.5% seen last March; the second, interrupting three consecutive months in a row of production growth, when it accumulated a 4.0% gain; the third place registering the second month in a row of drops and accumulating in this period a 4.5% reduction; and the last one offsetting the sequence of four months of positive results, a period in which it advanced 13.0%. The other negative rates were recorded by Rio Grande do Sul (0.8%), Pará (-0.8%), Bahia (-0.7%) and São Paulo (-0.1%). Click here to access the complete publication of the survey.

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Still in the seasonally adjusted series, the evolution of the quarterly moving average index for the total of industry recorded a 0.2% decrease in the quarter ended on April 2017, over the previous month level and kept the negative behavior seen last March (-0.5%), when it interrupted the upward trend initiated in October last year. By areas, still concerning the index movement on margin, seven places showed negative rates, with a highlight to the sharpest decreases recorded by Pará (-2.7%), Pernambuco (-2.0%), Espírito Santo (-1.8%) and Ceará (-1.2%). On the other hand, Bahia (1.5%) recorded the highest expansion in April 2017.

Industry down in 12 of 15 places surveyed over April 2016

In the comparison with the same month a year ago, the industrial sector showed reduction of 4.5% in April 2017, with 12 of the 15 places surveyed recording negative results. It is worth mentioning that April 2017 (18 days) had two less workdays than the same month a year ago (20). This month, São Paulo (-8.1%), Bahia (-8.0%) and Pernambuco (-7.2%) registered the sharpest losses, pushed mainly by the drops in the production coming from the sectors of food products (crystallized and VHP sugar), in the first place; basic metals (copper and copper alloy bars, profiles and rebars) and coke, oil derivatives and biofuels (diesel fuel, motor gasoline  liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha for petrochemicals), in the second; and non-metallic mineral products (“Portland” cement), beverages (soft drinks, sugar cane brandy, beer and draft beer) and food products (poultry sausage products, ice cream, popsicles and animal feeds), in the last one. Mato Grosso (-6.2%), Goiás (-6.1%), Ceará (-5.9%) and Paraná (-4.7%) also recorded sharper negative rates than the industry average (-4.5%), whereas the Northeast Region (-4.4%), Rio Grande do Sul (-4.3%), Pará (-3.8%), Santa Catarina (-3.5%) and Minas Gerais (-2.6%) close the set of places with output drop this month. On the other hand, Amazonas (7.7%) registered the sharpest advance in April 2017, leveraged, at a great extent, by the positive behavior coming from the sector of computer, electronic and optical products (TV sets and portable personal computers). The other positive results were seen in Rio de Janeiro (3.2%) and in Espírito Santo (1.4%).

In the cumulative indicator for the January-April period of 2017, over the same period in the previous year, the decrease seen in the production reached six of the 15 places surveyed, with a highlight to the drop seen in Bahia (-8.2%), pushed by the negative behavior coming form the sectors of coke, oil derivatives and biofuels (diesel fuel, naphthas for petrochemicals and fuel oils) and basic metals (copper and copper alloy bars, profiles and rebars). The other negative results were registered by Ceará (-2.9%), the Northeast Region (-2.9%), São Paulo (-1.9%), Mato Grosso (-0.9%) and Pará (-0.5%). On the other hand, Rio de Janeiro (5.2%), Espírito Santo (3.3%) and Santa Catarina (3.0%) recorded the sharpest advances in the cumulative index of the year. Amazonas (2.6%), Goiás (2.5%), Pernambuco (2.3%), Paraná (2.2%), Minas Gerais (2.0%) and Rio Grande do Sul (0.4%) close the set of places with positive results this period. In these places the greater dynamism was in the manufacture of capital goods (especially those used in the agricultural sector and for construction); of intermediate goods (iron ores, petroleum, pulp, steel industry and soybean derivatives); of durable consumer goods (cars and brown goods); and semi- and non-durable consumer goods (food, footwear, textiles and wearing apparel).

In the first four months of the year, the industrial sector, dropping 0.7%, registered the tenth negative rate in a row in this kind of comparison, but the least intense in the sequence.  The reduction of the drop magnitude in the total of the national industry between the September-December 2016 period (-3.6%) and the next four months (-0.7%) – both comparisons against the same period a year ago – was seen in 12 of the 15 places surveyed, with a highlight to the gains seen in Espírito Santo (-10.4% to 3.3%), Goiás (-8.0% to 2.5%), Mato Grosso (-9.9% to -0.9%), Amazonas (-4.0% to 2.6%) and Minas Gerais (-3.2% to 2.0%). On the other hand, Pará (6.1% to -0.5%) recorded the greatest reduction of pace between the two periods.

The cumulative indicator in the last 12 months, dropping 3.6% in April 2017 in the total national industry, remained in the downward trend started in June 2016 (-9.7%). In regional terms, 12 of the 15 places surveyed had negative rates in April 2017, but eight indicated a greater dynamism over March’s indexes. The main pace gains between March and April 2017 were recorded by Amazonas (-5.3% to -3.0%), Espírito Santo (-13.0% to -11.2%) and Rio de Janeiro (-0.3% to 0.8%), whereas Pará (6.9% to 5.9%), Mato Grosso (-3.2% to -4.0%), Bahia (-7.8% to -8.4%), São Paulo (2.2% to -2.7%) and Goiás (2.1% to -2.5%) showed the highest losses between the two periods. 

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June 9, 2017