The industrial output registered a decrease of 2.1% between March and April of 2011...

The industrial output registered a decrease of 2.1% between March and April of 2011, seasonal influences removed, after accumulating a gain of 3.3% in the last three months of growth.

In contrast with the same month a year ago, the industrial sector also showed a reduction in output (-1.3%), the second consecutive negative rate in that type of comparison. There was also a general drop all across the sectors and categories of use surveyed. As a result, the accumulated index for the first four months of the year was at 1.6%, a pace below the one detected at the end of the first quarter of the year (2.6%). The annual rate, accumulated indicator in the last 12 months, decreasing since October of last year (11.8%), contracted by 1.5 percentage points between March (6.9%) and April (5.4%) and recorded a slightly lower positive result since June of 2010.

The drop of 2.1% in the industrial activity between March and April included the reduction in 13 of the 27 surveyed sectors. The highlight was the decrease in machinery and equipment, which contracted by 5.4% in April, after four months of growth, when it accumulated a gain of 4.9%.

Other relevant negative influences on the overall industry came from fabricated metal products (-9.3%), motor vehicles (-2.8%), food products (-2.4%), electrical machinery and apparatus (-7.6%) and petroleum refinement and alcohol production (-1.4%). Among the activities that increased production, the most important performances as to the overall result were observed in pharmaceutical products (3.3%), mining and quarrying industry (2.5%), tobacco (20.6%), basic metals (1.4%), medical, optical and industrial process control equipment, watches and clocks (6.6%) and other chemical products (1.1%).

Among the categories of use, compared with the previous month, negative rates were observed in all sectors. Durable consumer goods (-10.1%) saw the sharpest decline this month, eliminating the 4.5% advance recorded in March.

Capital goods, by contracting 2.9%, registered a reduction above the average of industry (-2.1%), after advancing 7.7% in the last three months. Semi- and non-durable consumer goods (-1.5%) and intermediate goods (-0.6%) also displayed negative indexes. The former returning the 2.8% accumulated in the period of March/2011 and December/2010, and the latter accumulating a loss of 0.7% in the last two months.

Industrial output contracted by 1.3% compared with April a year ago.

The industrial output registered a drop of 1.3% against April of 2010, practically repeating the drop registered last March (-1.4%). In the last two months, the number of trading days was smaller than in the same month a year ago: March (two days less) and April (one day less). The index of April was pressured negatively by the drop in three of the four categories of use, 16 of the 27 sectors, 44 of the 76 subsectors and 52% of the 755 surveyed products. Among the sectors, the highest negative influences on the overall rate, following an order of importance, came from food products (-8.2%), machinery and equipment (-5.8%), textiles (-15.2%), electrical machinery and apparatus (-10.3%), petroleum refinement and alcohol production (-3.5%) and fabricated metal products (-5.8%). Among these sectors, the highlights were, respectively, crystallized sugar and poultry meat and offal; refrigerators, freezers and microwave ovens; bathing suits and cotton fabric and woven cotton fabric; transformers; ethyl alcohol and naphtas for the petrochemical industry; parts and accessories for capital goods and locks. Conversely, the most relevant positive impacts on the overall average came from pharmaceutical industry (17.6%) and from other transport equipment (9.7%), propelled by the highest production of medicines in the former, and of airplanes and motorcycle in the latter.

Among the categories of use, against the same month a year ago, durable consumer goods (-5.6%) and semi- and non-durable consumer goods (-2.0%) recorded the sharpest declines in April of 2011, both recording the second negative consecutive rate in that type of comparison. Intermediate goods (-0.8%) registered a contraction less intense than the national average (-1.3%), whereas capital goods, with a change of 0.1%, recorded the only positive result in that month.

Durable consumer goods registered the sharpest decline among the categories of use, pressured in great part by the contractions in the manufacture of motor vehicles (-9.8%); appliances (-12.9%), both "white line" (-11.3%) and "brown line" (-18.6%); and furniture (-2.6%). In this category, the main positive results came from the higher production for cell phones (16.7%) and motorcycles (19.1%). The manufacture of semi- and non-durable consumer goods also showed a drop above the overall average (-1.3%). It was negatively influenced by the contractions in semi-durable goods (-10.1%), food and beverages elaborated for domestic consumption (-2.6%) and fuels (-8.0%); mainly attributable to the lower production of cotton bathing suits and plastic and leather footwear, poultry meat and offal, beer and draft beer, and alcohol. Other non-durable goods (3.2%) registered the only positive impact in this category of use, propelled in great part by the higher manufacture of books and medicines.

intermediate goods (-0.8%) also saw a lower production against April of 2010, mainly pressured by the negative results observed as to the products associated with food products (-19.4%), textiles (-12.9%), other chemical products (-2.7%), fabricated metal products (-8.0%) and petroleum refinement and alcohol production (-1.2%), whereas the main positive impacts were obtained in basic metals (3.0%), pulp and paper (4.9%), non-metallic minerals (4.0%) and motor vehicles (4.5%). In this category of use, it is worth mentioning the negative results from intermediate goods for civil construction (-1.9%), which registered the second consecutive negative rate, and from packaging (-0.2%), which saw an interruption of 18 months of expansion in that type of comparison.

Capital goods was the only category to register a positive result in the monthly index (0.1%) and it was positively influenced by the advances in capital goods for transport equipment (7.0%) and capital goods for construction (12.1%). The other sectors registered a drop in production: capital goods for electric energy (-22.8%), for mixed use (-3.5%), for industrial purposes (-2.0%) and for agricultural purposes (-16.0%).

Output rises in 18 of the 27 activities in the accumulated index of the year

In the accumulated index of the four first months of the year, against the same period a year ago, the advance was of 1.6%, with the greatest part (18) of the 27 industrial sectors and all the categories of use registering expansion in production. Among the sectors, motor vehicles, with an increase of 7.2%, kept leading in terms of positive contribution to the overall index, propelled by the positive results of the greatest part of products surveyed in the sector (approximately 83%). It is worth mentioning the expansion recorded by pharmaceutical industry (8.1%), other transport equipment (12.4%), medical, optical and other instruments (22.8%), non-metallic minerals (4.4%), mining and quarrying industry (2.8%), petroleum refinement and alcohol production (2.4%) and machinery and equipment (1.9%). In terms of products, the highlights in these sectors were: trucks, vehicles for transportation of goods, tractor trucks and motor vehicles; medicines; airplanes and motorcycles; clocks; tiles and ceramic tiles and "portland" cement; iron ores; gasoline and diesel oil; and wheel loaders and motor graders. Conversely, textiles (-11.6%), other chemical products (-3.9%), food products (1.4%) and beverages (-3.0%) exerted the main negative pressures on the overall average, influenced in great part by bathing suits and cotton fabrics; herbicides for agriculture use; crystallized sugar and concentrated orange juice; and syrup and powder preparations for beverages.

Among the categories of use, in the accumulated index of the first four months of the year, capital goods (6.2%) continued with the highest rate, followed by durable consumer goods (2.3%), both with an expansion above the national average (1.6%). Intermediate goods saw a growth of 1.1% in the first four months of 2011, while semi- and non-durable consumer goods registered a slightly positive change (0.1%).