Industrial activity rose 3.5% during October

Industrial activity grew 3.5% in October in relation to the same month of 2021, while the construction sector presented a drop of 0.9%, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec).

Meanwhile, manufacturing activity in October was 1.1% below that of September and construction fell 3.5%, the agency reported.

In this way, in the first ten months of the year industrial activity increased 5.7% and Construction 5.5%, reported INDEC

In October, ten of the sixteen items of the manufacturing industry presented year-on-year increases.

#DataINDEC
The industry grew 3.5% year-on-year in October 2022 and contracted 1.1% compared to the previous month https://t.co/7QP17fxt6D pic.twitter.com/ycwU001bye

— INDEC Argentina (@INDECArgentina) December 7, 2022

In order to its incidence at the general level, increases of 5.1% were registered in “Substances and chemical products”; 2.5% in “Food and beverages”; 14.9% in “Motor vehicles and auto parts”; 15.1% in “Other equipment, apparatus and instruments”; 6.4% in “Basic metal industries”; 6.7% for “Rubber and plastic”; 6% in “Metal products”.

There were also interannual increases of 3.6% in “Non-metallic mineral products”; 2.9% for “Clothing, leather and footwear”; and 3.2% in “Oil refining, coke and nuclear fuel”.

On the other hand, falls of 5.3% were observed in “Furniture and mattresses and other manufacturing industries”; 1.6% in “Machinery and equipment”; 4.7% in “Textiles”; 1.1% in “Wood, paper, publishing and printing”; 1.3% in “Tobacco”; and 0.8% in “Other transportation equipment”.

INDEC also carried out a survey of expectations among industrial entrepreneurs and 28.9% of those consulted estimated that domestic demand will continue to rise until Januaryeven, against 26.8% who anticipate a fall, while 44.3% do not perceive major changes.

Regarding exports, 23% of those consulted considered that they would increase, 23.8% estimated a decline and the remaining 53.2% did not anticipate major changes.

In this frame, 33.6% of entrepreneurs I consider that will increase the utilization of the installed capacity of your factory, against 25% who estimated the opposite and 41.4% who do not envision major changes For all this, 43.6% of those consulted I consider that they will need more credits to produce, against only 6.8% who anticipated a drop and 49.6% who did not estimate major changes. Refering to drop of 0.9% year-on-year in construction activity, this was accompanied by decreases of 24% in the purchase of asphalt; 23.3% in construction paints; 9.9% in granite and calcareous mosaics; 4.9% in ceramic floors and coverings; 3.3% in plaster; 1.1% in lime and 0.8% in portland cement.The Secretary of Industry, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, stated last week that “the vast majority of Argentine industrialists recognize the difficulties that exist due to the lack of dollars, but We have no doubt about the political decision of this government regarding the industry”. In a radio interview, De Mendiguren considered that the proposals of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) due to the difficulties in accessing inputs “does not represent the unanimity of the Argentine industry.” “There are large companies that have interests that perhaps do not coincide with the small and medium-sized industry, and they try to make their interests prevail over the rest,” said the official.