With a 0.9% increase in national industry in March, in the seasonally adjusted series, five of the 15 areas surveyed by the IBGE in this indicator showed positive rates. The biggest advances were recorded in Pará (3.8%), Mato Grosso (2.5%) and Santa Catarina (2.3%). Bahia (0.5%) and Rio Grande do Sul (0.1%) completed the set of locations with positive results.

Amazonas (-13.9%) and Paraná (-13.0%) recorded double-digit retractions, the highest of the month. Ceará (-7.7%), Pernambuco (-4.8%), Espírito Santo (-4.7%), Minas Gerais (-2.4%), Rio de Janeiro (-2.1%), Northeast Region (-1.8%), Goiás (-1.4%) and São Paulo (-0.4%) showed the other negative results in this indicator.

In relation to the quarterly moving average (0.0%), 7 of the 15 places surveyed recorded negative rates in the quarter ending in March, with a highlight to Paraná (-3.1%), Goiás (-1.8%), Espírito Santo (-1.7%) and Pará (-1.5%). In comparison with the same month of the previous year, there was a 2.8% drop in the country's industrial sector, with negative results in 11 of the 18 areas surveyed. Among them, Paraná (-12.6%) and Amazonas (-10.9%) stand out with the biggest declines.

In the cumulative index over the year 2024, the 1.9% increase in the national industry was followed by positive results in 16 of the 18 locations surveyed. In the last 12 months, the industrial sector advanced 0.7%, with positive rates in 11 of the 18 areas surveyed.

In the 0.9% increase in industrial production from February to March, in the seasonally adjusted series, five of the 15 areas surveyed showed positive rates. Pará (3.8%), Mato Grosso (2.5%) and Santa Catarina (2.3%) recorded the sharpest advances, with the first interrupting two consecutive months of decline in production, a period in which it accumulated a reduction of 7 .9%; the second eliminating part of the 3.6% drop seen in the previous month; and the last one returning to growth after accumulating a loss of 3.6% in the first two months of the year. Bahia (0.5%) and Rio Grande do Sul (0.1%) completed the set of places with positive rates in March.

On the other hand, Amazonas (-13.9%) and Paraná (-13.0%) showed double-digit declines and the sharpest ones this month, with the first interrupting three consecutive months of growth in production, a period in which it accumulated gains 35.9%; and the second eliminating the 3.9% gain accumulated in the first two months of 2024. Ceará (-7.7%), Pernambuco (-4.8%), Espírito Santo (-4.7%), Minas Gerais ( -2.4%), Rio de Janeiro (-2.1%), Northeast Region (-1.8%), Goiás (-1.4%) and São Paulo (-0.4%) recorded the other negative results of the month.

The quarterly moving average index for industry showed zero change (0.0%) in the quarter ended in March 2024 compared to the level of the previous month, thus interrupting the predominantly upward trajectory that began in February 2023. Seven of the 15 The places surveyed showed negative rates this month, with emphasis on the sharpest declines recorded by Paraná (-3.1%), Goiás (-1.8%), Espírito Santo (-1.7%) and Pará (-1. 5%). On the other hand, Bahia (1.4%), Amazonas (1.3%), Rio Grande do Sul (1.0%) and the Northeast Region (0.9%) showed the main advances in the month.

Compared to March 2023, the national industry fell 2.8% in March 2024, with negative rates in 11 of the 18 locations surveyed. It is worth mentioning that March 2024 (20 days) had 3 fewer working days than the same month in the previous year (23). This month, Paraná (-12.6%) and Amazonas (-10.9%) recorded double-digit declines and the sharpest ones.

In Paraná, the drop was mainly influenced by the negative behavior observed in the coke, petroleum products and biofuels (diesel fuel, aviation kerosene and motor gasoline) sectors, motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (cars, auto parts, tractor-trucks for trailers and semi-trailers and trucks), food products (frozen meat and poultry offal, sweets and chocolate bars, frozen, fresh or chilled pork meat, sausage or salami products and other poultry meat and feed preparations), machinery and equipment (harvesters, agricultural tractors, drilling and surveying machines – used in petroleum prospecting, loaders and conveyors and machinery or equpment for agriculture, forestry and livestock) and chemical products (mineral or chemical fertilizers of NPK formulas, fungicides for use in agriculture, urea and deodorants).

In the case of Amazonas, the explanation for the negative result lies in the behavior of the sectors of computer equipment, electronic and optical products (memory units, cell phones and televisions), beverages (syrup preparations for the production of drinks for industrial purposes) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (motor gasoline and aviation kerosene).

Pernambuco (-6.3%), Northeast Region (-5.7%), Mato Grosso do Sul (-4.3%), Minas Gerais (-3.6%) and Bahia (-3.4%) also fell more than the national average (-2.8%), while Santa Catarina (-2.6%), Rio Grande do Sul (-2.1%), Maranhão (-1.8%) and São Paulo ( -1.6%) completed the set of places with negative results.

On the other hand, Rio Grande do Norte (16.3%) recorded the highest expansion this month, driven, to a large extent, by coke activities, petroleum products and biofuels (diesel fuel and motor gasoline). Goiás (7.0%), Espírito Santo (4.0%), Rio de Janeiro (3.1%), Mato Grosso (2.1%), Pará (2.0%) and Ceará (0.5% ) showed the remaining positive results for the monthly index in March 2024.

The cumulative result for the year 2024, compared to the same period in 2023, showed an expansion of 1.9% in the industrial sector, with positive rates in 16 of the 18 locations surveyed. Rio Grande do Norte (24.1%) and Goiás (10.9%) recorded double-digit advances and the sharpest ones in the cumulative index for the first three months of the year.

In Rio Grande do Norte, the increase was largely driven by coke activities, petroleum products and biofuels (diesel fuel and motor gasoline).

In Goiás, the result was due to food products (fresh or chilled beef, mayonnaise, frozen, fresh or chilled poultry meat and offal, pies, bagasse and bran from soybean oil extraction and refined soybean oil), chemicals (deodorants, mineral or chemical fertilizers of NPK formulas, liquid and bar soaps or detergents, hair preparations and superphosphates), motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (cars) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (ethyl alcohol and biodiesel).

Mato Grosso (6.2%), Ceará (6.0%), Rio de Janeiro (5.9%), Espírito Santo (5.5%), Amazonas (4.4%), Santa Catarina (3.5 %), Bahia (3.3%), Rio Grande do Sul (3.0%), Pará (2.3%), Mato Grosso do Sul (2.3%), Minas Gerais (2.2%) and São Paulo (2.1%) also recorded positive rates above the national average (1.9%), while Maranhão (0.5%) and the Northeast Region (0.4%) completed the set of places with growth in production in the cumulative index in the year.

On the other hand, Paraná (-1.9%) showed the most intense decline in the cumulative index for the period January-March 2024, pressured mainly by the activities of motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (cars and auto parts), coke, petroleum products and biofuels (diesel fuel and aviation kerosene) and machinery and equipment (drilling and surveying machines - used in petroleum prospecting, harvesters, agricultural tractors, loaders and conveyors and machinery orequipment for agriculture, forestry and livestock). Pernambuco, with a negative change of 0.1%, marked the other negative rate in the index.

The cumulative index in the last twelve months, having increased by 0.7% in March 2024, continued to show growth, but reduced intensity compared to the February result (1.0%). Eleven of the 18 places surveyed recorded positive rates in March 2024, but eleven showed less dynamism compared to February's rates. Amazonas (from 2.9% to -0.2%), Paraná (from 3.1% to 2.1%), Minas Gerais (from 3.1% to 2.2%), Mato Grosso do Sul (from -0.1% to -0.9%) and Maranhão (from -4.1% to -4.8%) recorded the main losses between February and March 2024, while Rio Grande do Norte (from 19.3% to 20.6%) and Goiás (from 7.6% to 8.5%) showed the main gains between the two periods.