12/05/2007 16h55

Record installed capacity and industry sales grow 8%

Valor Econômico - 12/05/2007

The use of the installed capacity in the industry reached 82.8% in October and broke a historical record.  With that, the sector sales grew in four consecutive months and were 8.2% higher than those of the same month last year. The worked hours in production (activity indicator) also increased expressive 6.3% in October and the employed personnel grew 4.6% in that month, always compared to last year's same month, according to the data of the National Industry Confederation (CNI).  This strong growth of the end of 2007 will leverage the sector's activity in 2008, explains the entity's economist Paulo Mol.  "October was stronger than we expected. The growth was very good under any base of comparison.  It is not an usual situation, even more with the valorization of 5.2% of the Real compared to the US dollar in October", he pondered. Mol also argued that there is no inflationary pressure, in spite of the use of the installed capacity's having reached 82.8%.  He said that the investment has been growing strongly since December of 2006. "The great concern is the maturity time of the investments. The Central bank keeps an eye on that difference between investment and demand. It is a true argument, but the indexes do not show pressure of industrial prices", he affirmed.  The accumulated variations from January to October are also relevant for real sales (4.9%), worked hours (3.9%), employed personnel (3.7%), and paid remunerations (5%). The strong figures of 2007 in the industry lead to the comparison with 2004's situation, but Mol pondered that the growth of the economy was accompanied by inflation that year. This year, that is not happening, insisted CNI's economist. "The exchange rate greatly inhibits price increases", he analyzed.  CNI's projections for this year are of growths of 4.7% in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 5% in the Industrial GDP, and something between 5% and 5.5% for the sector's sales.  In the interests setting for 2008, the entity foresees a falling path, yet slower than that in the 2006-2007 period.