Nuevo León’s manufacturing sector shows recovery in March: Caintra

Monterey, NL. The Manufacturing sector showed an important recovery in the month of March, and reached record figures in some of its indicators, after a weak manufacturing production during the first two months of 2022, indicated the Economic Expectations survey, which was carried out by the Chamber of the Transformation Industry (Caintra) from Nuevo Leon.

The physical volume of production reached 59 points in March, giving a jump of eight points compared to the previous month, these figures had not been seen since March of last year.

For the survey, 107 companies were consulted, from April 5 to 19, 2022.

In the case of new orders, in December and January it remained in a contraction phase, in February it managed to reach the expansion zone and in March it exceeded 60 points for the first time.

Meanwhile, the indicator number of workers followed the same trend as the production indicators, although to a lesser extent. The number of workers went from 51.7 points in February to 54.7 points in March, it is the highest figure presented in the history of this index since 2013, surpassing the record of 53 points in the month of April of last year.

Other indicators that rebounded were inventories, which went from 51.6 points in February to 54 points in March, and used capacity increased from 51.9 points to 57.6 points.

Foreign trade also showed a recovery in March; however, the increases were more measured; In particular, the export index crossed the expansion threshold, increasing from 48 to 51.8 points, while imports went from 50 to 53.6 points.

In the opposite direction, the price indices showed a drop of three points compared to the previous month, however, they continued in the expansion zone. The product prices reached 57.6 points in March and the prices of raw materials 67.7 points.

Uncertainty

Although all the indicators showed signs of improvement, businessmen have been moderate with investment, given the uncertainty; 27% of them made some purchase of machinery and equipment in March. In the last four months, the historical investment average of 30 percent has not been reached.

The main factors that hampered the performance of the industry of Nuevo León have been commodity gains, the political landscape, and weak economic activity.

Although the percentages of companies affected by inflation, weak economic activity, the adverse international environment and energy prices decreased, the political panorama was perceived as an obstacle by 38.3%, that is, 7.2% more than in the month of February.

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