With the reduction of 10.9% in the national industrial production, 14 of the 15 places surveyed showed negative rates from April to May 2018, in the series with seasonal adjustment. This generalized fall profile reflects the effects of the truck drivers' strike.

The most significant decreases were in Mato Grosso (-24.1%), Paraná (-18.4%), Bahia (-15.0%) and Santa Catarina (-15.0%). São Paulo (-11.4%) and Rio Grande do Sul (-11.0%) also reported more intense losses than the industry average (-10.9%), while Goiás (-10.9%), Minas Gerais (-10.2%), Northeast Region (-10.0%), Pernambuco (-8.1%), Rio de Janeiro (-7.0%), Ceará (-4.9%), Amazonas (-4.1%) and Espírito Santo (-2.3%) completed the set of locations with negative indices in May 2018. Pará, with a high of 9.2%, was the only advance in the month, offsetting the 8.5% decrease observed in the previous month. The full publication of the survey can be accessed here.

Still in the seasonally-adjusted series, the quarterly moving average index for the total industry fell by 3.4% in the quarter ended in May 2018, compared to the level of the previous month, after moving up 0.3% in April and retreating 0.7% % in March, when it interrupted the upward trend initiated in May 2017. In regional terms, still in the adjusted series, thirteen locations indicated negative rates, with the strongest declines reported by Mato Grosso (-6.4%), Paraná (-5.3%), Santa Catarina (-4.7%), Goiás (-4.1%) and Bahia (-3.9%). On the other hand, Pará (2.7%) and Espírito Santo (0.5%) recorded the only two advances in May 2018.

In comparison with the same month of 2017, the industry showed a reduction of 6.6% in May 2018, with 12 of the 15 places surveyed pointing to negative rates. It is worth noting that the result of this month showed the influence of both truckers´ strike and calendar effect, since May 2018 (21 days) had a working day less than May 2017 (22 ).

In this month, Goiás (-15.7%), Mato Grosso (-14.7%), Bahia (-13.7%), Paraná (-12.0%), Rio Grande do Sul  and the Northeast Region (-10.3%) registered the sharpest falls, mainly due to the decreases observed in the sectors of food products (VHP and crystallized sugar) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (ethyl alcohol and biodiesel) , in Goiás; (frozen, fresh or chilled beef, cakes, bagasses, bran and other residues from the extraction of soybean oil, frozen poultry and crude soybean oil) in Mato Grosso; motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (cars), in Bahia; (frozen poultry, animal food, processed maté tea, VHP sugar and refined soybean oil), motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (cars) and machinery and equipment (harvesters and farm tractors) in Paraná; food products (fresh and chilled poultry, rice, animal food, frozen pork), tobacco products (industrially processed tobacco) and machinery and equipment (farm tractors and seeders, planters or spreaders) in Rio Grande do Sul; and motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (automobiles), food products (wheat flour, cookies and crackers, ice creams, popsicles and cakes, bagasses, bran and other residues from the extraction of soybean oil), leather, traveling goods and footwear (sneakers, women's leather footwear and molded rubber footwear) and pulp, paper and paper products (pulp) in the Northeast Region.

Ceará (-9.7%), Santa Catarina (-8.2%) and Minas Gerais (-7.3%) also showed higher negative rates than the national average (-6.6%). The other places with declines in production this month were Espírito Santo (-5.4%), São Paulo (-4.8%) and Pernambuco (-3.5%).

On the other hand, Pará (6.0%) and Amazonas (4.5%) showed the strongest growth in May 2018, driven by the positive behavior of mining and quarrying industries (raw or processed iron ore) in Pará; and other transportation equipment (motorcycles and their parts and pieces) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (motor gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas) in Amazonas. Rio de Janeiro, with an increase of 0.9%, also registered a positive result this month. 

In the cumulative period of January-May 2018, compared with the same period of 2017, there were increases in eight of the 15 places surveyed, especially the two-digit increase in Amazonas (17.9%). Pará (6.6%), São Paulo (5.0%), Santa Catarina (4.0%), Rio de Janeiro (3.6%) and Pernambuco (2.3%) also recorded growth above the industry average (2.0%), while Ceará (1.1%) and Rio Grande do Sul (0.2%) completed the set of locations with positive results at the end of the first five months of the year.

In these places, the greatest dynamism was particularly influenced by the expansion in the production of capital goods (especially those directed to the transportation sector, for construction and mixed use); of intermediate goods (pulp, steel industry, soybean extraction derivatives, syrup preparations for the manufacture of beverages for industrial purposes, tires, parts and pieces for the car and electric-electronic industry, car pieces, packaging and rubber and plastic products); of durable consumer goods (cars and brown goods); and semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods (beers, draft beer, concentrated orange juices, frozen, fresh or chilled beef, textiles, ethyl alcohol, medicines and toiletries, soaps, cleaning and personal hygiene products).

On the other hand, Espírito Santo (-5.1%) and Goiás (-3.6%) showed the highest setbacks in the cumulative index in the year, mainly due to the decreases in the activities of non-metallic mineral products (cements "Portland" and carved or sawn granite - including plates), mining and quarrying industries (crude petroleum oil and natural gas) and pulp, paper and paper products (pulp) in Espírito Santo; and of food products (VHP and crystallized sugar) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (ethanol) in Goiás. Minas Gerais (-2.2%), Northeast Region (-1.6%), 1.3%), Paraná (-0.9%) and Mato Grosso (-0.4%) also showed negative rates in this indicator. The reduction in the industrial production rate, due to the sharp deceleration of May, can also be observed in the comparison of the first quarter (3.0%) with the April-May period (0.6%), when compared to the same periods in 2017. In the same comparison, ten of the 15 sites surveyed lost dynamism, with Amazonas (from 24.3% to 8.7%), Pará (from 9.3% to 2.8%), Goiás (from 1.3% to -4.9%), Ceará (from 3.6% to -2.5%) and the Northeast Region (from -0.2% to -3.8%), while Pernambuco (from 1.2% to 4.1%), Rio de Janeiro (from 2.5% to 5.2%) and Espírito Santo (from -6.0% to -3.8%) showed the greatest advances between the two periods.

The cumulative index in the last twelve months (3.0% versus 3.9% in April) interrupted the upward trend started in June 2016 (-9.7%). In regional terms, ten of the 15 sites surveyed showed positive rates in May 2018, but 14 showed less dynamism compared to the indexes of last April.

The main losses of pace between April and May 2018 were in Paraná (from 3.9% to 2.1%), Goiás (from 4.0% to 2.4%), Rio Grande do Sul (from 1.4% % to -0.2%), Santa Catarina (from 5.9% to 4.4%), Ceará (from 4.4% to 3.0%), Bahia (from 1.5% to 0.2% ), Mato Grosso (from 5.7% to 4.5%) and Northeast Region (from 0.5% to -0.6%), while Amazonas (from 10.1% to 10.4%) recorded the only advance between the two periods.