More companies are reconvert and stop manufacturing all or some products locally to import them from other countries. This week the news came from Kenvue the owner of female hygiene brands as always free and carefree, which will completely stop her plant in Pilar’s party and bring the merchandise directly from Brazil. It is a modality that are increasingly firms adopting for commercial opening and exchange appreciation. Analysts say that the industry entered a “defensive mode”, alert due to tax pressure and lack of financing.
Imports continue: exchange appreciation and commercial opening. In fact, the participation of imports of goods and services on the internal gross product reached 32.4%, its highest point in the last century, according to data from the Audemus consultant.
With this scenariomore companies decide to replace their local production totally or partially with imported merchandise. To the resonant cases of first brands in the petrochemical sector, of sports shoes and Nissan in the automotive field, this week Kenvue joined the owner of brands as always free and Carefree, which will completely stop her plant in the Pilar match and bring the merchandise directly from Brazil.
In the field of personal hygiene the multinational Kimberly-Clark had already announced last month the closure of its plant with more than 200 workers in the same town. The renowned firm decided in that case to “centralize” its activity in the plant that it has in the province of San Luis.
The defensive mode
For the specialized analyst in productive development, Agostina Monti Salías, the movement is not surprising because it is not the first time that happens: “During the 2016-2018 period, with a commercial opening policy and a strong appreciation of the real exchange rate, many companies faced the impossibility of competing And they adopted similar strategies, ”he said.
For Monti you, what we see today is a “Triple structural impact on industrial competitiveness ”: A real exchange rate still appreciated, which artificially increases national products, high and poorly designed tax pressure, which falls with more weight on formal production than on other activities and the lack of financing due to high rates of real interest and financial volatility that make it unfeasible.
“In this context, Many industrial firms, especially SMEs, adopt defensive decisions. They import finished products to maintain commercial presence or replace national supplies with cheaper imported ones, ”said the specialist. On this point, he stressed that” they do not do so because they are strategically convenient, but because macro and institutional conditions do not allow them another survival alternative. “
Natural selection
“It’s adapting or dying,” said Carlos Bender, owner of Lumilagro, That from the government’s decision to discharge an anti -dumping measure, he chose to change the brand mix and turn the bulk of the business, more than 60%, to import. The company stayed with about 65 employees to produce two thermos models at the plant they have in the province of Buenos Aires.
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For Audemus, the reason why even in a stage of reactivation and low of inflation the industry has not had a positive reaction, located in most cases below 2023, It is explained by the combination between the opening of the economy and exchange backwardness.
The consultant’s report has a picture accounts for more than a dozen measures that facilitated import, while on the side of improvements in conditions to produce, for the moment there is an extensive emptiness. Far to be on a “level” court, The opening occurs in a context of financial instability and with an exchange rate that only in 12 of the last 55 years was so low.
Source: Ambito
