The challenge for Nuevo León’s industrialists is the rise in raw material prices: Caintra

Monterey, NL. The decline in economic activity in December was notorious, but with a lower decline than in previous years, nevertheless, were the factors that hindered the operation of Nuevo León’s industrialists: the rise in raw material prices, shortage of trained staff, transport logistics, uncertainty and lower external demand.

This is indicated by the Survey of economic expectations of manufacturing in Nuevo Leónconducted by the Transformation Chamber of Commerce of Nuevo León, from 5 to 14 January and 102 companies were consulted.

The price index for raw materials stood at 68.3 points, while the price index for final products stood at 57.4 points. According to this, the main obstacle mentioned by the industrialists of Nuevo León is still the rise in the prices of raw materials by 51%, the same figure as the previous month.

In addition to this, weak economic activity and the scarcity of personal trained limited the development of the industry as they harmed 34% and 30% of those surveyed respectively.

The industrialists mentioned that other factors affecting the development of their Business during the month of December, the logistics of the transport which affected 28%, the political panorama which affected 26%, the insecurity which hampered 21% and a lower external demand which affected 18.6% of the respondents.

Setback

The survey showed that the industry showed a decline during December 2021, but historically it has been observed that the industry contracts at the end of each year due to seasonal consequences.

Regarding the indicators in particular, the physical volume of production and new orders were reduced compared to the previous survey to 46.5 and 45.6 points respectively. Both indices are shrinking after expanding for ten consecutive months.

In the same sense, the number of workers it dropped from 52.5 points in November to 49 points in December, coinciding with the decline in employment reported in December of each year.

In terms of foreign trade, both exports and imports were in contraction during December with 45.6 and 46.6 points respectively. Faced with the economic contraction observed in the last month of each year, businessmen were more cautious with their investments, and therefore the percentage of investment dropped from 32% in November to 26% in December.