Sunday April 23, 2023 | 12:44 p.m.
The production of the SME manufacturing industry increased 2.4% in March compared to the same month last year, at constant prices. In the comparison with February, activity remained unchanged. Although demand remains firm for now, there are companies that doubt that this rate can be sustained in the coming months if costs do not stabilize.
The SME industrial sector is manufacturing in a context of great uncertainty marked by macroeconomic instability and in a productive import administration scheme. Despite this, in the first quarter of the year, the industry accumulates an increase of 5.2% compared to the same quarter of 2022.
The use of the installed capacity of the companies in the sample rose to 73.3%, that is, 1.6 percentage points above February (71.7%). The highest levels were found in “Paper and Impressions” (82.4%), and the lowest in “Metal, Machinery and Equipment, and Transport Material”, and in “Chemical and plastic products”, both with 69, 9%
At the same time, there are sectors such as chemical, plastic or metal-mechanical producers, where investment dynamism is surprising, almost uncoupled from the current situation. Most of these SMEs are financing themselves with their own resources, and they find that, in this context, the best option is to quickly reinvest the profits in the same company.
These results arise from the SME Industrial Production Index (IPIP) prepared by CAME, with a sample that reached some 384 SME industries at the federal level.
The best performance in September was in “Food and Beverages”, with an annual increase of 9.1% in its production, always measured at constant prices. The worst occurred in “Paper and Impressions”, with an annual fall of 10.4%.
