The activity level of the industry increased 4.2% year-on-year during September, while construction marked an improvement of 5.2% in the same period, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) reported on Tuesday.
With regard to the comparison with the previous month, manufacturing production in September fell 0.2% compared to August and construction activity fell 2.8%.
In this way, in the first nine months of the year, industrial activity accumulated a rise of 6% and construction, 6.3%.
During September, 13 of the 16 items of the manufacturing industry presented year-on-year increases.
In order of their incidence in the general level, increases of 2.9% were registered in “Food and beverages”; 14% in “Motor vehicles and auto parts”; 7.7% in “Basic metal industries”; 9.6% in “Clothes, leather and footwear”; 8.1% in “Non-metallic minerals”; 2.4% in “Chemical substances and products”.
To these were added improvements of 4.8% in “Machinery and equipment”; 5.4% in “Metal products”; 2.7% in “Wood, paper, publishing and printing”; 6.2% in “Oil refining, coke and nuclear fuel”; 3.1% in “Furniture and mattresses and other manufacturing industries”; 3.8% in “Textiles”; and 7.1% in “Other transportation equipment”.
Perspectives for the coming months
The Indec also carried out a qualitative survey in the manufacturing sector on the prospects for the coming months.
Asked the businessmen about how they expect internal demand to evolve until December inclusive, 31.8% foresee a rise against 24.2% who expect a decrease, while the remaining 44% do not anticipate major changes.
Regarding exports, 22.2% expect an increase until December inclusive, 21% anticipated a decrease, and the remaining 56.8% do not envision major changes until the end of the year.
In this framework, the Secretary of Productive Development, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, indicated that “the decision is to industrialize Argentina based on the development of the industry of the future, we want to focus on the development of everything that has to do with national density, through science and technology, the knowledge economy and 4.0 tools”
“Argentina can give the world assets that can be very useful to overcome the global crisis, and for this reason it is important to define the alliances that allow us to achieve economic development,” said the official on Monday in Valencia, Spain, where he participated in the 5th Connected Industry Congress.
Regarding the case of construction, 66.1% of the companies that are dedicated to private works estimate that there will be no major variations in the activity against 19.6% who anticipate an increase, and 14.3% a decline .
Among those who carry out public works, 57.3% of those surveyed do not foresee major changes, and the difference between those who believe that it will increase, 22.7%, and those who will regress, 20%, is minimal.
The new Minister of Territorial Development, Santiago Maggiotti, said this week that “the objective is to continue with the task that we have been developing.”
In numbers “it would be to increase the 60,000 homes already delivered, exceed the 70,000 loans that we have delivered throughout the country and be able to culminate in principle with the 140,000 homes that we have under construction throughout Argentina,” Maggiotti said in statements to the press
