National industry
In May, reduction in the production of vehicles drags retreat of 0.5% in industry
July 02, 2025 09h00 AM | Last Updated: July 02, 2025 04h15 PM
In May, retreat of 3.9% in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and bodies contributed to the negative change of the industrial output - Picture: Roberto Dziura Jr. / AEN
In the seasonally-adjusted series, the industrial sector retreated 0.5% in May 2025, stepping up the negative figure registered in April (-0.2%). Among the broad economic categories, only intermediate goods recorded a positive change (0.1%), whereas the production retreated in 13 out of 25 industrial activities surveyed. With these results, the Brazilian industrial activity is 2.1% above the pre- pandemic level (February 2020), though 15.0% below the record level reached in May 2011. The data are from the Monthly Industrial Survey (PIM), released today (2) by the IBGE.
Among the activities, in the seasonally-adjusted series, the most important negative influences came from motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (-3.9%) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (-1.8%). The negative contributions of food products (-0.8%), fabricated metal products (-2.0%), beverages (-1.8%), manufacture of wearing apparel and accessories (-1.7%) and furniture (-2.6%) stood out as well. According to André Macedo, manager of the Monthly Survey of Industry, "the negative result this month not only steps up the pace of loss in relation to the previous month, but also offsets part of the gain of 1.5% accumulated in the first three months of the year, compared with the level of December 2024."
On the other hand, 11 activities increased their output, and mining and quarrying industries (0.8%) exerted the major positive impact with the fourth consecutive rise, accumulating an expansion of 9.4%.
Intermediate goods was the only category to grow over the previous month
Considering the four broad economic categories, still in the seasonally-adjusted series, three of them dropped: durable consumer goods (-2.9%), capital goods (-2.1%) and semi and non-durable consumer goods (-1.0%). The only positive figure came from intermediate goods (0.1%), the fourth consecutive rise, accumulating an advance of 2.4%.
According to André Macedo, "the only positive figure among the broad economic categories was in intermediate goods, mainly explained by the positive behavior of the mining sector, as a result of a bigger extraction of iron ore. In contrast, the sector producing durable consumer goods reported the highest magnitude of loss and offset part of the cumulative expansion of 4.1% in the months of April and March 2025. This month, it was pressed by a smaller manufacture of cars, brown goods and motorcycles."
Industrial output advanced 3.3% compared with May 2024
The Brazilian industrial output grew 3.3% compared with May last year. Three out of four broad economic categories and 19 out of 25 sectors increased their production. The activities with the biggest positive influence were mining and quarrying industries (8.7%), motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (12.2%), machinery and equipment (12.6%) and chemicals (6.8%).
On the dropping side, the major negative influence came from coke, petroleum products and biofuels (-7.2%), mainly due to a smaller production of ethyl alcohol. According to the manager of the survey, "The positive result - of a higher magnitude and with a widespread profile - is associated to a low comparison basis, since the industrial sector retreated 1.2% in May 2024."
Industry still accumulates a rise of 1.8% in 2025
With these results, the Brazilian industry accumulated an advance of 1.8% in the first five months of 2025, maintaining the expansion in the output and gaining pace against the same period a year ago, when this cumulative rate was at 1.4%.
Two out of four broad economic categories showed higher performances than in the same period in 2024: durable consumer goods (from 8.7% to 10.0%) and intermediate goods (from 1.5% to 2.3%). Those segments were leveraged by the bigger production of cars (from 7.3% to 11.9%) and by the advances in mining and quarrying industries (from 1.7% to 3.2%).
On the other hand, still in the comparison between the two periods, the sectors of semi and non-durable consumer goods (from -0.7% to -1.2%) and of capital goods (from 2.2% to 1.9%) lost pace.
More on the survey
PIM Brazil has been producing short-term indicators since the 1970s regarding the behavior of the real product of the mining and quarrying and manufacturing industries. March 2023 marked the beginning of the release of the new time series of monthly indexes of the industrial production, after a redesign to update the sample of activities, products and informants; create a new weighting structure of the indexes based on the most recent industrial statistics; update the base year of reference of the survey; and incorporate new Federation Units in the release of regional results of the survey. These methodological changes are required and they aim at incorporating the economic changes of the society.
The survey results can also be consulted on Sidra. The next release of PIM Brazil, with results for the month of June 2025, will be on August 1st.
