About the Production and Demand of Vehicles in Colombia. Economic Performance of the Industrial Sector.

For the month of march, industry, domestic retail trade and industrial exports fell with annual variations of -11.1%, -0.9% and -16% respectively.

INDUSTRY

According to the latest results published by the official source as of march of this year, the industrial sectors that fell the most in their annual production are the following: vehicle manufacturing -58% and parts manufacturing, auto parts -40.9%.

They are followed by basic industries of precious metals -32.8% and manufacturing of rubber products -32%. Others also fell, such as bakery products -21.2%, cocoa and chocolate products -23.4%, machinery and equipment -22.5% and wood and its products -20.8%, furniture manufacturing -15.4%, footwear -18.2%, glass and products glass -19.1%, chemical manufacturing -20.3% and pharmaceutical manufacturing 11.5%.

There is a total of 36 of a set of 39 industrial activities that show falls.

Regarding sales of these products by the industry, those of parts and auto parts fell mainly -39.9%, rubber products -30.9%, precious metals -26.9%, coffee threshing -25.5% and vehicles -9%.

The personnel employed with work falls mainly in the following sectors: vehicle manufacturing -21.6%, parts and auto parts -19% and basic precious metals industries -10.3%.

DOMESTIC TRADE

The official source also presented the results of annual sales and employed personnel as of march in retail trade, where there were sectors with declines that surpassed others with promotions, as shown below.

Among those that fell in sales are mainly spare parts and vehicle parts -19.8%, vehicles -15.9%, hardware and glass items -17.6% and computer equipment -10.9%. These movements were partially offset by increases in non-alcoholic beverages 13.2%, alcoholic beverages and cigarettes 9.1% and toiletries 6.8%.

For its part, the decreases in jobs stand out in clothing and footwear -10.4%, motor vehicles -4.3%, which were partially offset by increases in computer equipment 5% and retail fuel trade 2.9%.

INDUSTRIAL EXPORTS

In addition, the official source published the state of the country's industrial exports for the month of march, within which the main annual decreases are the following. Office machines -62.3%, rubber manufactures -40.1%, leather and its manufactures -32.4%, iron and steel-43.1%, metal manufactures -36.8%, furniture and its parts -29.8% and chemical products -29.7%. Also clothing -20.4%, paper and cardboard -7.3%, plastics -28.7%, medicinal and pharmaceutical products -26.7% and chemical products -29.7%.

Some industrial sectors grew and partially offset these declines, such as machine parts and pieces 14.4%, electrical parts and pieces 6.8%, tanning and coloring agents 7.3% and essential oils for toiletries 6.8%.

From all the above, some observations are the following. In the industry, the drop in its main products is due to the weakness of the domestic market. These are products that had a drop in domestic demand, such as vehicles and auto parts, which is consistent with the declines in domestic trade of these products, as shown previously.

Other of those industrial products that fall but to a lesser extent explain their decline both by lower demand in the domestic market and a decrease in the external market, these are rubber products, leather, wood, metal manufactures, furniture, clothing, glass, medicinal, pharmaceutical and chemical products; They are products whose exports fell as already mentioned.

The decline in industrial exports is due to a drop in productive efficiency (and a lack of diversification and technological innovation as structural failures) so they lost competitiveness at an international level, which corresponds to a comparative delay with other countries such as emerging ones from Asia.

INDUSTRIAL IMPORTS

Although the results as of march have not been presented by the official source, with the information available as of february the following observations can be inferred. The main annual falls correspond to vehicles and transportation equipment, iron and steel, metal manufactures, and electrical machinery and appliances. Results partially offset by increases in industrial machinery and equipment, data processing machinery, chemical and plastic materials and products.

With the decrease in imported vehicles, it is inferred that the decrease in demand for this product is generalized, both from national production and from those imported from other countries.

Also, imports of data processing machinery and some for industrial use grow due to increases in demand.

It should be noted that in Colombia imports of industrial products greatly exceed exports of that sector, they are almost 5 times more and in addition they are 75% of total imports, which explains how a large part of these products for consumption in the domestic market are brought from abroad, the country is characterized by being one of those classified as importing countries of products that have added value in other countries.

Certainly, in contrast, in the country the industrial exports mentioned throughout this note are also much lower in value than other Colombian exports, they are barely a fifth of the total, which causes the country to be classified as only a country in development due to its low industrial participation in total exports and due to other economic indicators, such as inflation, unemployment, poverty and inequality.

GDP OF THE FIRST QUARTER 2.024

Analysts and think tanks, based on the behavior of industry, commerce and the external sector, consider that in the first quarter the GDP will register a result of 0.3%, which is lower than that of 2.023, which was 0.6%, but it is not negative considering that other sectors such as agriculture and finance will have positive results. However, it is a beginning of the year with low growth, and it is expected that throughout the year it will be surpassed until ending with an estimate of 1.3% annually.