The rate is positive after falling by 1.9% in July. Industry also grew by 3.8% in relation to August 2004, with accumulated rates of 4.3% in the year and 5.1% in the last twelve months

In August, the industrial production grew by 1.1% in comparison with July, considering the seasonally adjusted series. In comparison with August 2004 the growth was 3.8%. The accumulated rate for the industry was 4.3% in the year (in relation to the same period of the previous year), the same figure registered in July. In the last twelve months, the accumulated rate was 5.1%, less than in July (5.9%).

After falling by 1.9% in July, the growth of 1.1% in August caused the industrial to reach record levels obtained last June. Eleven of the twenty-three subsectors which are seasonally adjusted grew, and the main positive impacts were: tobacco (25.1%), pharmaceutical industry (6.2%), machinery and equipment (3.2%), petroleum refinement and alcohol production (2.4%) and beverages (5.8%).

The significant growth of the tobacco industry is due to the processing of the item tobacco in the leaf in a non-typical period of the year. The main negative influences in August were cellulose and paper (-5.7%), food products (-1.4%) and electronic material and communication equipment (-3.2%).

From July to August, capital goods reached the highest rate (3.1%) among the categories of use, after a fall of 7.1% in July. With a change of 0.1%, the category intermediate goods remained stable in relation to July and barely reduced the result registered from June to July (-1.9%). The production of durable goods, which had fallen in July (-6.4%) was the only segment to fall in August (-1.7%), whereas semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods (1.6%) grew to levels above the overall average of industry.

In relation to August 2004, durable consumer goods (13.0%) grew to levels above the average of industry ( 3.8%)

The performance of industry in relation to the same month of the previous year (3.8%), which has remained positive for two years, was partially influenced by a bigger number of working days in August 2005. Fifteen of the twenty-seven subsectors surveyed grew in this comparison; the main positive impacts, in order of importance, were: pharmaceutical industry (30.6%), petroleum refinement and alcohol production (10.6%) and editing and printing (15.7%). The pharmaceutical industry, with 27 of the 38 items surveyed presenting positive results, grew in this comparison. The main negative contributions were: machinery and equipment (-3.7%), apparel (-11.5%) and textiles (-5.9%).

Still in relation to August 2004, among the categories of use, the leadership of durable consumer goods (13,0%) was evident, since this category of use grew above the overall average of the industry (3.8%). This is related to the bigger production of automobiles (13.1%), mobile telephones (50.7%) and household appliances such as TV sets, DVD players, sound systems, etc. (12.7%), of which the production of television sets is the main highlight (30.4%).

The category of semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods (8.2%) had the tenth consecutive positive result in this comparison, with the following subsectors as the highlights: other non-durable consumer goods (12.2%), food products and beverages for domestic consumption (6.0%) and fuels (17.8%). The subsector of semi-durable goods, however, was the only one with negative results (-2.6%).

The production of capital goods, based on the subsectors of capital goods for transportation (9.2%), capital goods for mixed use (3.0%), capital goods for electric energy (11.3%) and for construction (36.2%), grew by 3.0%.The negative impacts came from the subsectors capital goods for agriculture (-40.3%) and machinery and equipment for industrial uses (-0.7%).

Despite its recent growth, the subsector of intermediate goods had a rate close to zero (0.4%). Among the growing subsectors, it is worth mentioning basic industrial inputs (13.2%), as a consequence of the bigger production of processed tobacco and iron ore. Another important impact on the overall result was the subsector fuels and special lubricants (6.7%), influenced by the items diesel and gas. The main negative influence came from the subgroup industrial inputs (-2.5%), the subgroup which most contributes to the category of intermediate goods. It is worth mentioning that, for the second consecutive month, there were falls in inputs for construction (-0.5%) and packaging (-1.4%).

Industry has an accumulated rate of 4.3% in the year in comparison with the same month of the previous year

Considering the index accumulated in the period January-August, in comparison with the same period of 2004, the growth of industry was 4.3%. In this case, 20 subsectors had their production increased. The automobile industry remained as the leader (9.9%) in terms of impact on the overall index, with the item automobiles (15.4%), as the main highlight. Other relevant positive impacts came from electronic material and communication equipment (20.7%) and from editing and printing (13,5%), represented by the items mobile phones and newspaper and magazines, respectively. Among the seven falling subsectors, metallurgy was the major contributor to the overall rate (-2.8%).

Among the categories of use, the growth along 2005 confirmed the dynamism observed in the production of consumer goods. Durable (15.7%), and semi-durable and non-durable goods (6.4%) recorded results above the overall average (4.3%), whereas the subsectors of intermediate goods (1.6%) and capital goods (2.7%) had a more moderate performance.

Among the 76 subsectors surveyed, 55 accumulated positive rates in the year (in relation to January –August 2004). It was almost the same figure registered in the period January- July, when 56 subsectors grew. In August, the highlights were the subsectors: extraction of petroleum and natural gas (10.7%), extraction of iron ore (11.1%), alcohol (23.5%), cement and clinker (9.6%), automobiles, trucks and utility cars (15,1%) and trucks and buses (15.6%). The main falls were: fertilizers (-12.8%), steel laminates (-7.0%) and tractors, and agricultural machinery and equipment (-35.0%).

Industry tends to stabilization at high-level patterns

In August, the quarterly moving average of the industrial sector (0.3%) tended to stabilization at a high production level. The analysis of the same indicator for the categories of use pointed to a slight upward tendency in the subsectors of durable (0.2%), semi-durable, and non-durable (0.6%) consumer goods, whereas there was a tendency towards stabilization of intermediate (-0.1%) and capital goods (0.0%).