As predicted, the scenario of high basic interest rates continues to hinder access to credit for productive investments. Expensive and difficult to access, it caused a setback of 6.4% in the net revenue of the machinery and equipment sector in January, compared to the same period of the previous year.
Despite the enthusiasm regarding the measures planned by the federal government, which will initiate a process of reindustrialization in the country, and the expected recovery in sales in the following months of the year, the performance of 2023 will depend, in the short term, on the performance of the economy domestic market, in addition to available credit, in adequate volume and cost for working capital, exports and investment in fixed assets.
“The tax reform, one of the pro-industrialization agendas, although it does not immediately bring gains in competitiveness, if approved later this year tends to bring optimism in relation to reducing bureaucracy and reducing production costs, possibly incurring investment attraction”, he says. Cristina Zanella, executive director of economics and statistics at ABIMAQ, at a press conference held at the entity’s headquarters
The worsening observed in industrial activities in recent months led to a contraction in investments in machinery and equipment. Apparent consumption, resulting from the sum of imported machines with those produced locally and directed to the domestic market, registered a drop of 10.1%, indicating the trend towards increased participation in the local market observed from the second half of 2022.
Exports and Imports
In the first month of the year, exports of machinery and equipment showed good sales performance, an increase of 22% when analyzing the same month of 2022.
In January 2023, the sector again exported more than US$ 1 billion in machinery and equipment. “This result reinforces the good moment that exports in the machinery and equipment sector are going through, which showed an increase in all types of machinery in the interannual comparison”, explains Zanella.
Imports of machinery and equipment started 2023 with a decline compared to the previous month, but an increase in the interannual comparison, reaching US$ 2.1 billion, an amount 15.5% higher than January 2022. “The level of imports returned to the level observed in the period prior to the financial crisis that started in 2015”, observes the executive director of ABIMAQ
Nuci, orders and jobs
On average, the machinery and equipment manufacturing sector operated in January 2023, with 75.5% of its installed capacity. The backlog of orders, measured in number of weeks to be fulfilled, registered a drop of 2.4% compared to December 2022. Currently, the sector has a backlog equivalent to 11.2 weeks of activity, 11.5% lower than in January last year.
The Brazilian machinery and equipment industry recorded a 0.7% rise in hiring compared to December, with just over 390,000 people employed. In the year (January 2022 – January 2023) the sector created almost 5 thousand jobs. The numbers and complete performance of the sector are available on the ABIMAQ website.