Stocks fall and confidence in industry increases
O Estado de S. Paulo 05/01/2009
The level of the stocks of the Brazilian industry is very close to its historical average, according to data disclosed today by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in the Processing Industry Survey. In the month of April, the stocks reached 88.4 points in the survey - the variation goes from 0 to 200 points and the historical average is 91.9 points. This month, from the total of 1,061 companies surveyed, 15.7% of them pointed the existence of excessive stocks, much less than January's 21.8%. Another data that can be interpreted as the end of the period of adjustment of the industry is that 4.1% of the entrepreneurs answered they already have enough stocks for the demand. That index was of 1.8% in March and got to 0 in the months of January and November.
"The industry is very close of its historical average with regard to the stocks and, more and more, since January, it is getting close to a situation of balance and complete adjustment", said the FGV research coordinator, Aloísio Campelo. Among the sectors that already present stocks below the historical average are textile and pharmaceutical products. In a balanced situation, we see the sectors of clothing and footwear, transport material, chemicals, plastic materials, non-metallic minerals and steel. Among the sectors which have excessive stocks appear, in first place, the mechanical sector, strongly influenced by the industry of capital goods, paper and pulp, electric and communications material and, surprisingly, food products. The entrepreneurs of the industry do not plan on hiring workers, but they signal they have no more intention to layoff, as it took place in the past months. This month, the amount of entrepreneurs that answered they foresee a higher job level for the next three months increased.