Sunday February 19, 2023 | 10:57 a.m.
The production of the SME manufacturing industry rose 3.5% annually in January at constant prices, completing four consecutive months of growth, as reported by the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME). 4 of the 6 large sectors measured grew. In the monthly comparison, activity practically remained the same with a slight increase of 0.3%.
Despite the improvement in production, the use of installed capacity of the companies in the sample fell slightly. It stood at 72.5%, some 0.4 percentage points less than in December, according to the survey among SMEs. This small retraction is related to higher investments in high-demand sectors such as furniture, chemicals, and transport material.
A notable data from January was the large proportion of industries that are evaluating or have already decided to make new investments, which reached 46% of the companies in the survey.
In return, companies express concerns that require urgent solutions. In the first place, the administration of the imports of inputs for the national production supposes a real and concrete restriction to the development of the local industry. Finally, it is worth noting the fear that the future of the agricultural campaign generates in the food, machinery and transport material industry.
These results arise from the SME Industrial Production Index (IPIP) prepared by CAME, with a sample that reached some 364 SME industries at the federal level.
The best performance in the annual comparison was in “Wood and furniture” (+5.6%), “Metal, machinery and transport material” (+5.6%), “Chemicals and plastics” (+5.5% ) and “Food and beverages” (+5.1%). The worst was observed in “Paper and printing” (-6.4%) and “Textiles and clothing” (-3.7%).
