The metallurgical sector recorded during the month of May, a drop in its production of -17.6% year-on-yearand compared to April of this year, the decrease in activity has been -0.7% registering a slight deceleration in monthly terms.
In this way, if we accumulate the monthly losses that the sector registers during the current yearthe value amounts to -8.9% so far in 2024.
The report prepared by the Department of Economic Studies of the Association of Metallurgical Industrialists of the Argentine Republic (ADIMRA), also indicates that The use of installed capacity has also registered a sharp decrease, being -13.1% below the same month of the previous year and -11.1% below the 2023 average.
Metallurgical industry: how was the performance of each sector
In the analysis within the industry of the sector, we can observe again, a systematic fall in all the subsectors that make up this industrial network. In turn, it is observed that Double-digit contractions continue with drops of up to -21% compared to the same month of the previous year.
The companies Suppliers of the construction, final consumption and automotive value chains are those that have demonstrated the worst relative performance, with drops of up to -26%. On the other hand, those that provide oil, gas and mining sectors have demonstrated best relative performanceseven with slight increases in production compared to the previous year in the case of the first two.
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Metallurgical industry: the employment outlook
Regarding the level of employment, a year-on-year decrease of -3.4% is observed. If we compare against the month of April, employment decreased -0.2%, registering a slight deceleration compared to previous months.
With respect to the main metallurgical provinces, it is observed, again, widespread falls in all regions with values ranging from -11% to -21%.
ANDIn Santa Fe, production in the sector fell much more intensely than in the rest of the provinces, with strong decreases in the capital goods and auto parts sector. Agricultural machinery, for its part, was the sector that decreased the least in relative terms in the province. Something similar happens in Córdoba, where the capital goods sector and auto parts manufacturers have also been the ones that have fallen the most during the month.
In Mendoza, a drop similar to the average for the entire metallurgical sector has been recorded. In Buenos Aires, as in Santa Fe, the agricultural machinery sector seems to be beginning to recover with companies that are increasing their production compared to a previous year that has been very bad as a result of the drought. However, the declines continue to be strong.
Metallurgical industry: foreign trade
Besidesforeign trade has decreased both imports and exports of metallurgical productsduring April (latest data available from INDEC), compared to the same month of the previous year.
During April, the exports recorded a total amount of 407 million USD and They fell -9.7% compared to the previous year. Imports, on the other hand, were USD 1,823 million and had a negative interannual variation of -23.2%. However, since February to date, purchases of metallurgical goods from abroad have been increasing.
In this way, during 2024, around 1.3 billion USD in metallurgical products have already been exported, while around 6.8 billion of the same have been imported.
Source: Ambito
