The industrial production SME fell by 5% in October and accumulates six months at the lowest

Manufacturing output in the SME sector again fell sharply for the sixth month in a row and declined 1.9% in the first ten months of the year compared to the same period in 2017.

In October, the decline from one year to the next reached 5%, while, compared to September, it had increased by 5.6%, which is explained by a seasonal issue and that did not prevent the advance of the industrial recession.

According to the SME Industrial Production Index (IPIP) established each month by the Confederation of Medium Enterprises of Argentina (CAME), only two of the eleven surveyed branches showed positive behavior in the comparison of a year to year.

Thanks to the improvement in competitiveness resulting from the sharp devaluation of recent months, the food industry and non-metallic minerals rose by 0.1% and 1.6% respectively, to the detriment of exports.

On the contrary, the largest declines were observed in "Shoes and leather goods" (-15%), "Rubber and plastic products" (-10.8%), "Wood products and furniture" (- 10.4%)), "Paper, cardboard, publishing and printing" (-8.5%) and "Metal products, machinery and equipment" (-7.3%).

As a result, 74% considered that the situation of their business was regular, bad or critical and only 18.7% expect a rebound in the next three months. In turn, the use of installed capacity remained at 58.6%, which is why seven out of ten industries do not expect new investments.

"The trend of production does not seem to be rebounding and continuing until at least the middle of next year, the only companies that are the strongest are those that export and benefit from the devaluation and the new price. dollar, "said Pablo Bozzanno. Executive Director of the Chamber of Information, Electronics and Communications Industries of Central Argentina (CIIECCA).

Among the most important problems highlighted by the businessmen interviewed by the CAME are the lack of liquidity in the market, the poor quality of the payment chain, excessive interest rates and the difficulties in repaying liabilities. .

"Suppliers want to charge 30 days and customers pay 120. This forces the companies in the sector to borrow at exorbitant rates," said Daniel Garca, president of the Argentine Chamber of efficient lighting manufacturers and Domtica (CAFLED) .