For the first time in 8 years, industrial production falls in all 15 locations surveyed

Industrial production recorded a drop, in the passage from February to March, in all 15 regions surveyed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), according to data released on Thursday (14). It was the first time in the historical series of the research, which began in 2012, that there was a drop in all locations. The closest to this result happened in May 2018, with the truckers' strike, which brought down industrial production in 14 of the 15 sites. The largest falls in March occurred in the industries of Ceará (-21.8%), in Rio Grande do Sul (-20.1%) and in Santa Catarina (-17.9%). In the country's general average, industrial production fell 9.1% in March, compared to February, as reported last week by IBGE. It was the worst result for March of the historical series of the survey, begun in 2002, and the sharpest monthly drop since the Truckers' strike in May 2018 (-11%). "The March data are direct effects of social isolation that affected the production process in Brazil," says research analyst Bernardo Almeida. He also explained that, in the old format of the survey, with 14 sites surveyed, the only widespread drop occurred in November 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis. The series now has 15 locations in 2012, when Mato Grosso was included. Pará (-12.8%), Amazonas (-11.0%) and Northeast Region (-9.3%) also showed more intense declines than the national average (-9.1%). In São Paulo, the drop was 5.4% compared to February. By concentrating more than a third (34%) of the national industry, however, São Paulo was the place that most influenced the general result of March. This was the second negative rate of the consecutive state, accumulating in February and March a loss of 6.6%. In Rio de Janeiro, the drop was 1.3%. Pernambuco (-7.2%), Espírito Santo (-6.2%), São Paulo (-5.4%), Bahia (-5.0%), Paraná (-4.9%), Mato Grosso (-4.1%), Goiás (-2.8%), and Minas Gerais (-1.2%) also had rates below the national average. In March, there was a generalized drop in production in the sector, evidencing the deepening of outages in several industrial plants, due to social isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the activities, the drop that exerted the greatest pressure in the overall index, however, was that of motor vehicles, trailers and bodywork (-28%), the worst result since May 2018 (-29%). With a drop of 9.1% in March, the Brazilian industry began to accumulate a 1.7% decline in the year. In 12 months, it's down 1%. In the first quarter, the sector accumulated a 2.6% drop compared to the fourth quarter. In the year, compared to the same period of the previous year, industrial production recorded a drop in 10 of the 15 sites surveyed, especially Espírito Santo (-13.3%) and Minas Gerais (-8.4%), pressured to a large extent by the setbacks signaled by extractive industries and metallurgy. Santa Catarina (-5.1%), Rio Grande de Sul (-4.7%), São Paulo (-2.3%) and Mato Grosso (-1.8%) also recorded more pronounced negative rates than the national average (-1.7%). Ceará (-1.4%), Goiás (-1.2%), Amazonas (-1.2%) and Pará (-0.8%) completed the set of locations with a drop in production. The largest advances in the accumulated year were in Rio de Janeiro (9.8%) and Bahia (7.1%), mainly driven by the positive behavior of extractive and coke industries, petroleum products and biofuels, in the first location; and coke, petroleum products and biofuels, in addition to pulp, paper and paper products, in the second. Pernambuco (5.6%), Northeast Region (4.3%) and Paraná (2.6%) also accumulate positive rates in the year.