In August 2014, the national industrial output posted increase of 0.7% against the previous month, in the seasonally adjusted series, after also growing 0.7% in July, when it interrupted four months of negative results, accumulating in this period a 3.4% loss. In the seasonally adjusted series, in the comparison with same month a year ago, the industry overall contracted 5.4% in August 2014, the sixth consecutive negative rate in this kind of comparison. Thus, the industrial sector accumulated a  drop of 3.1% in the eight months of the year, intensifying, as a result, the 2.6% loss recorded in the first semester of 2014. The annualized rate, which is the cumulative indicator over the last twelve months, with a 1.8% drop  in August 2014, kept the downward trend started last March (2.0%) and posted the sharpest negative result since December 2012 (-2.3%).

The complete publication of the survey can be accessed on page www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/indicadores/industria/2014/pimpfbr/

The industrial sector, in August 2014, kept the scenario of slight increase in the producing pace, recording the second consecutive advance which interrupted four months of production decline. It is worth highlighting that with the positive result this month, the industry overall recovered just part of the 3.4% loss which was accumulated between March and June and stayed 6.2% below the highest level reached in June 2013. In the in the seasonally adjusted series, the evidences of a lower dynamism of the industrial activity in the last months were also present at the evolution of the quarterly moving average index, which, despite posting a lesser pace of decline over the previous months, kept the downward trend initiated last March.

14 out of the 24 segments surveyed recorded growth in August over July

The 0.7% growth of the industrial activity between July and August had prevalence of the positive indexes, reaching 14 of the 24 segments surveyed, with a highlight to the 2.4% advance registered by mining and quarrying industries, which recorded the sixth consecutive positive result, accumulating in this period an expansion of 7.3%. Other important positive contributions to the industry overall came from machinery and equipment (3,9%), coke, petroleum related products and biofuels (1.5%), food products (1.1%), rubber and plastic (4.1%), tobacco products (15.4%) and metal products (2.7%). On the other hand, among those segments reducing the production this month, the major performances in the overall average came from beverages (-6.1%), toiletries, soaps, detergents and cleaning products (-4.2%), pharmaceuticals and pharmochemicals (-7.4%), motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (-1.5%) and other transportation equipment (-6.9%). Except for the first sector (with a negative rate for the second month in a row, accumulating a loss of 8.6% in the period), the other activities recorded positive results last July: 2.8%, 4.1%, 8.4% and 31.0%, respectively.

Among the major economic categories, still considering the comparison with the previous month, just intermediate goods (1.1%) advanced this month in the production and interrupted four consecutive months of negative rates, a period in which it accumulated a drop of 1.4%.  The segment of capital goods (0.0%) repeated the level recorded in the previous month, after expanding 15.0% last July, when it offset four months of production decline, with a cumulative loss of 19.4% in the period. The sector of durable consumer goods (-3.0%) and semi- and non-durable consumer goods (-0.8%) registered the negative rates this month, with the first one again shrinking after a 26.3% growth in the previous month, and the second one eliminating the 0.6% growth recorded in July.

Quarterly moving average down (-0.1%)

In the seasonally adjusted series, the evolution of the quarterly moving average index for the industry overall had a negative change of 0.1% in the quarter ended in August against the previous month, after also recording negative rates in April (-0.3%), May (-0.6%), June (-1.0%) and July (-0.6%). Among the major economic categories, in relation to the movement of this index on margin, durable capital goods (-2.3%) recorded the sharpest reduction in August and kept the downward trend started last March. The sector of semi- and non-durable consumer goods (-0.6%) also recorded a negative rate this month, after staying virtually stable in the last two months. On the other hand, the segments of intermediate goods and of capital goods, both with a 0.2% change, registered the positive rates in August, with the first segment offsetting the negative behavior initiated in May; and the second one interrupting four consecutive months of drops in this kind of indicator.

Industry shrinks (-5.4%) in comparison with August 2013

In the comparison with the same month a year ago, the industrial sector fell 5.4% in August 2014, with a widespread fall, since the four major economic categories and the majority (21) of the 26 segments registered output reduction. It is worth highlighting that August 2014 (21 days) had one workday less than the same month a year ago (22). Among the activities, motor vehicles, trailers and bodies, which fell 25.6%, exerted the major negative influence on the formation of the industrial average, pushed to a great extent by the lower production of cars, trucks, tractor trucks for trailers and semi-trailers and car parts. Other relevant negative contributions to the national overall came from food products (-4.0%), basic metals (-11.2%), fabricated metal products (-12.0%), machinery and equipment (-6.6%), other chemical products (-5.7%), rubber and plastic (-8.5%), electrical machinery and apparatus (-9.4%), communication equipment, apparatus and electronic material (-9.3%) and beverages (-6.6%). In terms of products, the most important negative pressures in these segments came from, respectively, crystallized sugar and VHP sugar, ice-creams, popsicles, frozen, fresh or chilled beef and frozen poultry; handicraft and several pieces of cast iron, carbon steel bars, carbon steel cold-rolled coils, laminated steel plates, coils, tapes and strips, iron and steel flexible and drawn tubes, galvanized steel coils or plates and of other steel alloys and tubes, pipes or hollow profiles of seamless steel; iron and steel structures, screws, hooks, pins or bolts of iron and steel, iron and steel frames, iron and steel towers and gantry cranes, prefabricated metal constructions, several iron and pressed steel artifacts and pontes e iron or steel bridges and bridge-sections; harvesting machines, motograders, valves and faucets, cranes, overhead cranes, gantry cranes, bridge cranes and straddle carriers, wheel loaders , forklift trucks, ball, needle, cylinder and roller bearings for industrial equipments and backhoe loaders; paints and varnishes for general use, herbicides and fungicides for agricultural use; plastic parts and accessories for the automotive industry, vulcanized rubber (excl. hard rubber) tires, seals, gaskets and the like, plastic bottles, carboys, flasks and the like and plastic films (including BOPP) for packaging; wires, cables and insulated electrical conductors, AC and DC electric  motors, power generators, switches, disconnectors for rated voltages less or equal to 1kV, household electroportables, electrical security alarms and kitchen stoves for domestic cooking; TV sets, mobile transmitters and receivers, radios for motor vehicles, printed circuit boards for computers, mobile telephones, PC desktops and clocks and watches; and soft drinks, beer and draft beer and syrup preparation for the elaboration of beverages for industrial purposes. On the other hand, still comparing with August 2013, among the five activities that increased production, the main impacts were seen in mining and quarrying industries (7.6%), coke, petroleum related products and biofuels (5.3%) and tobacco products (34.6%), leveraged to a great extent by the advances in the items pelletized iron ores, crude petroleum oil and raw iron ore, in the first segment, fuel oils, aviation kerosene and ethyl alcohol, in the second one, and industrialized tobacco, in the last one.

Comparing with the same month a year ago, durable consumer goods (-17.9%) and capital goods (-13.4%) recorded, in August 2014, the sharpest drops among the major economic categories. The segments of intermediate goods (-3.3%) and of semi- and non-durable consumer goods (-3.1%) registered the other negative results this month, both falling with a lower intensity than the national average (-5.4%).

The segment of  durable consumer goods fell 17.9% in August 2014, the sixth negative rate in a row in this kind of comparison and more intense than the one seen in the previous month (-13.7%). This month, the sector was particularly influenced by the lower manufacture of cars (-25.0%), still due to the reduction in the working hours and by the granting of collective vacation in several producing units. Other negative impacts came from motorcycles (-18.3%), brown goods (-21.0%), the lesser production of TV sets, white goods (-5.4%), other white goods (-9.9%) and furniture (-14.7%).

The sector of capital goods, shrinking 13.4% in August 2014, also recorded the sixth consecutive negative result in the monthly index and with a sharper drop than the one seen in the previous month (-8.2%). In the formation of the index this month, the segment was influenced by the drops seen in the majority of the groups, with a clear highlight to the reduction of 22.3% in capital goods for transportation equipment, especially pushed by the lower manufacture of trucks, tractor trucks for trailers and semi-trailers, trailers and semi-trailers and vehicles for the transportation of goods. The other negative rates were registered by capital goods for construction (-22.9%), for agricultural purposes (-13.0%) and for industrial purposes (-1.2%); whereas capital goods for electrical energy (6.3%) and for miscellaneous purposes (1.7%) recorded the positive results in August 2014.

The drop in the production of intermediate goods (-3.3%), which presented the sixth consecutive negative result in relation to the same period a year ago, was mainly on account of the lows in the products related to the activities of motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (-25.1%), basic metals (-11.2%), fabricated metal products (-13.6%), other chemicals (-5.6%), rubber and plastic  (-8.8%), food products (-4.3%), non-metallic mineral products (-3.5%) and textiles (-5.5%), whereas the positive pressures were seen in mining and quarrying industries (7.6%), coke, petroleum related products and biofuels (6.3%), machinery and equipment (4.9%) and pulp, paper and paper products (1.3%). In that same category, it is worth mentioning the negative results registered by the groups of inputs for civil construction (-7.2%), which registered the sixth drop in a row in this kind of comparison, and of packaging (-2.3%), after having fallen last June (-3.6%) and July (-2.6%).

Over the same month a year ago, the segment of semi- and non-durable consumer goods, shrinking 3.1% in August 2014, offset the 0.6% advance registered last July. The performance this month was greatly influenced by the falls in food and beverages for domestic consumption (-4.2%),  in semi-durable (-7.1%) and non-durable (-1.2%), mostly influenced by the lesser production of ice-creams, popsicles, soft-drinks, frozen, fresh or chilled beef, beer, draft beer, frozen poultry and giblets, cookies and crackers, in the first sub-sector; cotton t-shirts, women's pants, mobile telephones, women's shirts and blouses, except those made of cotton, women's synthetic and leather footwear, in the second one; and of medicine and books, in the last one. Conversely, the only positive contribution in this category of use was recorded by the group fuels (3.2%), driven by the advances in the production of ethyl alcohol and motor gasoline.

In the cumulative index of 2014, industrial output drops (-3.1%)

In the cumulative index for the eight months of 2014, over the same period in the previous year, the industrial sector posted a 3,1% decrease with widespread fall, reaching three of the four major economic categories, 18 of the 26 activities, 56 of the 79 groups and 64,3% of the 805 products surveyed. The main negative impact came from motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (-18,8%), pushed  to a great extent by the reduction of nearly 94% of the products investigated in the sector, with a highlight to the drops seen in cars, trucks, tractor trucks for trailers and semi-trailers, vehicles for transportation of goods and car parts. Other negative relevant contributions to the national overall came from fabricated metal products (-11.0%), basic metals (-6.6%), machinery and equipment (-5.6%), electrical machinery and apparatus (-8.1%), other chemicals (-3.8%) and rubber and plastic (-4.4%). In terms of products, the most important negative influences in this segment were, respectively, iron and steel structures, several iron and pressed steel artifacts, iron and steel frames, prefabricated metal structures, iron or steel bridges and bridge-sections, iron or steel screws, hooks, pins or nuts and tubular scaffolding and scaffolding material; artifacts and several pieces of cast iron, other alloy steel coils or sheets, sheets, coils and laminated steel strips, iron and steel flexible and drawn tubes and e seamless steel tubes; valves and faucets, agricultural tractors, cranes, overhead cranes, gantry cranes, bridge cranes and straddle carriers, wheel loaders, ball, needle, cylinder and roller bearings for industrial equipments and harvesting machines; wires, cables and insulated electrical conductors , switches, disconnectors for rated voltages less or equal to 1kV, AC or DC electric motors, electrical security alarms,  household electroportables, washing or drying machines and refrigerators or freezers for domestic use; fungicides for agricultural use, paints and varnished for general use and for construction unsaturated propene, ethers and organic peroxides, benzene, additives for lubricating oils and unsaturated ethylene ; and plastic parts and accessories for the automotive industry, unvulcanized compounded rubber, in primary forms, vulcanized rubber (excl. hard rubber) seals, gaskets and the like, plastic cartridge for packaging, plastic films (including BOPP) for packaging and plastic bottles, carboys, flasks and the like. On the other hand, among the eight activities that increased production, the major influences were observed in mining and quarrying industries (4.9%), coke, petroleum relate products and biofuels (2.3%), pharmaceutical (5.6%), computer, electronic and optical equipment (4.8%) and food products (0.8%), leveraged to a great extent by the growth in the production of raw and pelletized iron ore, in the first one, of fuel oils, ethyl alcohol, petroleum asphalt, aviation kerosene and motor gasoline, in the second one, of medicine, in the third one, of TV sets, telephone switching equipment, video monitors and audio and video recorder or player, in the fourth one, and of crystallized sugar, in the last one.

Among the major economic categories, the profile of results for the cumulative index over the eight months of 2014 showed more dynamism for durable consumer goods (-10.3%) and capital goods (-8.8%), pushed especially by the reduction in the manufacture of cars (-18.6%), in the first one, and of capital goods for transportation equipment (-16.9%), in the second one. The segment of intermediate goods (-2.6%) also recorded a negative result in the cumulative index of he year, but with a less intense decrease than the one seen in the national average (-3.1%). On the other hand, the sector of semi- and non-durable consumer goods (0.0%) was the only one not to register a negative rate.