Brazilian industry production grew 0.1% from July to August, driven mainly by the extractive industry, which includes oil and mining. The result is a slight recovery after the 1.4% drop in July. Throughout 2024, the sector will expand by 3%. Over the last 12 months, the result is positive at 2.4%.
The data is part of the Monthly Industrial Survey, released this Wednesday (2) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). With the results presented, Brazilian industry is 1.5% above the pre-pandemic level of February 2020. However, it is still 15.4% below the highest level ever recorded, in May 2011.
Although industrial production remained positive between July and August, the details of the research reveal that there was a decline in 18 of the 25 industrial sectors surveyed.
The diffusion index was 56.7%. This indicator shows the percentage of products that expanded, among the 789 investigated.
When analyzing a period of three months, which allows us to understand the sector’s trend, the research manager, André Macedo, highlights that “the balance of industrial production is positive, as the total industry grew 4.4% in June” .
“This movement is also evident when we observe the quarterly moving average index, which has remained on an upward trajectory since mid-2023”, he adds.
However, Almeida also points out a warning sign involving the transformation industry, a segment that transforms raw materials into final or intermediate products, which will be modified again by another industry.
“The fact that the manufacturing industry was negative by 0.3%, being the second consecutive month of decline [-1,7% em dois meses]. Within it, there was a predominance of activities showing a drop in production. These are important warning signs.”
Influences
In the industry as a whole, in August compared to July, the most important positive influence came from extractive industries (notably oil, natural gas and iron ore), with an increase of 1.1%.
Other positive contributions were the sectors of pharmochemicals and pharmaceuticals (3.6%), computer equipment, electronic and optical products (4%) and chemical products (0.7%).
On the other hand, the group motor vehicles, trailers and bodies fell 4.3%. Other significant impacts include the miscellaneous products segment (-16.7%) and recording printing and reproduction (-25.1%).
Regarding vehicle production, which had been on the rise for two months, the research manager said that “it is more a characteristic of this month than exactly a trend of reversing the positive picture of this activity in recent months”.
