Tuesday April 18, 2023 | 6:34 p.m.
Even with the contraction suffered in February as part of a trend in the manufacturing industry, a report from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) revealed that the use of installed capacity in the national industry reached 65% this month, exceeding 64% registered in the same period of 2022.
These figures are published within the framework of INDEC’s own records, which showed that the manufacturing industrial production index fell 1.4% in February compared to the same month of 2022. However, in the accumulated index of the first two months of 2023, it advanced 2.5% year-on-year.
In turn, the seasonally adjusted series index showed a negative variation of 1.3% compared to the previous month and the trend-cycle series index registered a negative variation of 0.1% compared to January.
The sectoral blocks that present levels of utilization of installed capacity higher than the general level were oil refining, with 86%; paper and cardboard, 77.2%; basic metal industries, 74.7%; non-metallic minerals, 74.4%; and chemical substances and products, 74.2%.
The sectoral blocks that were located below the growth at a general level are the automotive industry, with 60.5%; editing and printing, 59.6%; food and beverages, 59.3%, rubber and plastic, 53.7%; textiles, 52.4%; metalworking, 52.2%; and tobacco products, 51.7%.
An Ámbito survey for the month of April 2023 made it possible to collect future sensations from the industrial sector. In this sense, expectations of sustaining the growth achieved last year have also been reduced in recent months. However, they highlight the importance of maintaining a fluid dialogue with the Government, looking for a way to speed up imports for sectors that can generate foreign currency and also request the establishment of a differential exchange rate for those who export, mainly for SMEs.
