Industry sells more with smaller use of the installed capacity
Valor Econômico - 04/04/2008
The reduction in the use of the industry's installed capacity, registered in February, was accompanied by a more intense activity in the sector and this setting electrified the debate about the necessity of the Banco Central (BC) to increase the basic interest rate in the next week's meeting. The National Confederation of the Industry (CNI) published that, in February, the use of the capacity retracted form January's 83.1% to 82.9% in February. The peak was registered in November (83.3%). Besides the greater leeway in the installed capacity, which indicates more room to meet the demand, there was relevant growth in the four others industrial indexes measured by CNI in February: sales (11.5%), worked hours (8.8%), employment (4.9%), and salary mass (7.2%), compared to February of 2007. According to the entity's economists Flávio Castello Branco and Pablo Mol, this stronger rhythm of the sector is explained by the increases in employment, income, credit, and stock recovery that has been happening in small-, mid- , and large-sized industries. The use of the industry installed capacity (UCI) retracted in February because, according to CNI's economists, investment has been growing for eight consecutive quarters in a more accelerated rhythm than that of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Another comparison concerning the increase in offer was made by Bradesco's Economic Department yesterday. In the 12 months ended in February, the apparent consumption of machinery and equipment (that sums production minus export plus import) showed a high of 20.2% - three times the industrial production accumulated 6.9% measured by the IBGE for the same period. The comparison between production and level of use of the capacity also shows detachment. In February, the production of the industry was 6.5% higher than that registered at the end of 2006. In order to meet this volume, the capacity use grew much less - 2 points. The secretary of Economic Monitoring of the Ministry of Finance, Nelson Barbosa, avoided judging the conduction of the monetary policy, but he commented that CNI's information revealed a good relationship between the increase of the activity and the stabilization of the use of the Industry's installed capacity. He concluded that there is no concern about what currently happens between offer and demand.