The production of the SME industry registered an increase of 3.5% in January compared to the same month of 2022, which adds four consecutive months of rise in the year-on-year comparison, according to a report by the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME). ).
In January, four of the six large sectors measured grew: “Wood and furniture” (+5.6%), “Metal, machinery and transport material” (+5.6%), “Chemicals and plastics” (+5, 5%) and “Food and beverages” (+5.1%).
Compared to last December, the level of SME manufacturing activity also marked an improvementin this case 0.3%.
Despite the improvement in productionthe use of the installed capacity of the companies in the sample decreased slightlyand. It stood at 72.5%, some 0.4 percentage points less than in December.
This small retraction, according to CAME, “is related to greater investments in high-demand sectors such as furniture, chemicals and transport material.
A notable data for 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, the companies expressed “concerns” on the issue of imports of inputs for national production.
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.
