This Sunday, the Argentine Confederation of Medium Enterprises (CAME) warned that demand is weakened and there is a deterioration in the financial situation after detailing that the manufacturing activity of the SMEs accumulated a retraction of 19.1% in the first five months of 2024.
In that sense, the CAME indicated that in the annual comparison with May of 2023 the manufacturing activity of the SMEs decreased by 19%, and although there was an increase of 0.2 percentage points in the use of the installed capacity compared to the previous month, also remains at 70%which is a low value.
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It should be noted that, the Confederacy highlighted the inter-monthly variation growth which, on average of the six items surveyed, registered an increase in 5.3% in relation to April. The sector topped the listWood and furniture” with 6.1%, followed by “Metal, machinery and equipment, and transportation material” with 4.6%, “Chemicals and plastics with 3.9% and “Textiles and clothing” with 3.5%, while “Paper and prints” fell by 1.5%.
In this context, the companies consulted by the Confederacy They clarified that there is greater stability in the price of inputs but spending on energy and transportation increased in May, and the concern lies in what may happen to the costs of these services in the coming months.
Likewise, the SMEs identified that the biggest challenges to overcome in the coming months to maintain growth and generate stability in the sector are the lack of sales by 45.1%, and 32.8% due to the high costs of production and logistics.
As a consequence of the lack of sales34.4% of producers reported that reduced operating expenseswhile 19.9% detailed that reduced the number of working hoursalthough they stated that they hope there will be a rebound soon.
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Regarding this, 33.9% of the SMEs They expect there to be a tax reduction, 14.7% indicated that there will be a stimulus in domestic demand and 14.2% consider that there will be an adjustment of labor relations. In sum, Businessmen highlighted the importance of intervention by the Government.
Strictly speaking, the six manufacturing sectors of the SMEs had a sharp decline in the annual comparison, among which the “Paper and prints” with a drop of 45.8% and the “Chemicals and plastics” with a deterioration of 23.9%. Meanwhile, the sector “Textile and clothing”, showed an increase until April, but it was brought by 4.3% compared to May 2023.
