Machinery sector has 18%-higher results
Valor Econômico
After retracting nearly 10% in July, the earnings of the national industry of machinery and equipment started registering growth in August again. The segment had results that were 18% bigger than last year's, amounting to R$ 6 billion (US$ 3.3 billion). For this month, the perspective of the Abimaq (Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association) is to have an even more consistent growth, since the result from August has not reflect the deals closed under the new financing conditions offered by the BNDES (National Development Bank). yet "We are very optimistic for the next months", affirmed Carlos Pastoriza, general-secretary of the Abimaq, yesterday, during the announcement of the results at the entity's headquarters, in São Paulo.
The director also emphasized that, for the first time since October last year, the level of jobs in the sector showed growth. In August, the number of employees got to 231.1 thousand, which means a slight increase of 0.4% compared to the previous month. In this period, however, the segment laid off nearly 20 thousand employees all over the country.
The anxiety of the manufacturers for the results of the next months results from the incentives given by the Federal Government, mainly through the new interest rates practiced by the BNDES in the Finame lines. According to the entity, the BNDES has nearly R$ 12 billion (US$ 6.7 billion) to finance machinery and equipment until the end of December. Later, the rates are expected to resume to the prior levels. "The Abimaq is making a very strong effort to announce the conditions. We believe that even if the entrepreneur is not confident in investing, s/he can take his purchase decision in advance with an eye on a greater productivity", explained Pastoriza.
Until August, the earnings of the manufacturers of capital goods was R$ 40.4 billion (US$ 22.4 billion). In the same period of last year this value amounted to R$ 49.9 billion (US$ 27.3 billion). The forecast of the Abimaq is to end the year with a fall between 13% and 15%, which strengthens the perspective of growth in the sales between September and December.
The portfolio of orders closed the month practically unchanged, going from 19.7 weeks in July to 19.6 weeks at the end of August. Compared to the same month of 2008, the number of weeks for the delivery of a piece of equipment registered a slight increase of 1.6%. The use of the installed capacity closed last month at 81.5%, stable in relation to the previous year.