Industrial production registered its second consecutive growth, advancing 0.9% from January to February. With this result, the industry accumulates an expansion of 3% in the period. Compared to February of the previous year, the industry retreated 0.7%, after advancing 0.2% in January, when it interrupted three consecutive months of decline in production: December (-0.1%), November (-1.4%) and October 2025 (-0.4%). The three-month moving average in February was 0.3%, the cumulative figure for the year was -0.2% and the cumulative figure for the twelve months was 0.3%. With these results, industrial production is 3.2% above the pre-pandemic level (February 2020), but is still 14.1% below the record level reached in May 2011. The data are from the Monthly Survey of Industry (PIM), released today (2) by the IBGE.

With this positive start to the year, industry is recovering the losses recorded in the last months of 2025, with a widespread growth profile, accroding to André Macedo, manager of PIM. “While January was characterized by the resumption of production, after a December marked by a higher frequency of collective vacations and technical shutdowns, February stands out for the advance in production, possibly associated with a process of restocking in different industrial sectors,” comments Mr. Macedo.

The growth in industrial production was recorded in the four broad economic categories and in most (16) of the 25 sectors surveyed. Among the activities, the most important positive influences were noted by motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (6.6%) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (2.5%). “In these sectors, the main positive pressures come from cars and auto parts, in the automotive industry, and petroleum derivatives and ethyl alcohol, in the petroleum derivatives and biofuels sector,” explains André Macedo. As a result, the automotive, trailer, and bodywork sector accumulated a 14.1% expansion in the first two months of 2026, eliminating the 9.5% decline seen in the last two months of 2025. Meanwhile, the production of coke, petroleum products, and biofuels, marking its third consecutive month of growth, registered a 9.9% gain during this period.

Among the sectors that showed a decline, the main influence came from the production of pharmaceutical and chemical products (-5.5%), which intensified the magnitude of the drop seen in the first month of the year (-1.4%). "In the pharmaceutical industry, characterized by the greater volatility of its results, we observe the second consecutive month of decline, largely influenced by the high base of comparison, due to the 19.0% increase accumulated in the last two months of 2025," comments the survey manager. It is also worth highlighting the negative impacts noted by chemical products (-1.3%) and basic metals (-1.7%).

Year-on-year comparison: Industry declines 0.7%

Compared to the same month of the previous year, the industrial sector showed a 0.7% decline in February 2026, with negative results in 3 of the 4 broad economic categories, 20 of the 25 branches, 60 of the 80 groups, and 62.1% of the 789 products surveyed.

“It is worth noting that this month's result was influenced not only by the calendar effect, since February 2026 had two fewer working days than the same month of the previous year, but also by a higher comparison base, given that the industrial sector grew 1.2% in February 2025,” comments Mr. Macedo.

Among the activities, the main negative influences on the total industry were registered by motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (-7.3%), chemical products (-6.4%) and machinery and equipment (-11.0%). In the automotive, trailer, and bodywork sector, there was pressure for lower production of tractor-trailer trucks, cars, trailers and semi-trailers, bus bodies, auto parts, and trucks. Among chemical products, the declines in NPK chemical fertilizers, hair preparations, insecticides for agricultural, domestic, and industrial uses, paints and varnishes for construction, and deodorants stand out. In the machinery and equipment sector, the main influences were from wall-mounted, window-mounted, or portable air conditioners (including split systems), lifting or conveying equipment for goods, machinery or equipment for the agricultural sector, centrifugal pumps, and motor graders.

Other significant negative impacts were noted in the following sectors: wearing apparel and accessories (-15.1%), fabricated metal products (-8.4%), computer equipment, electronic and optical products (-9.1%), machinery, apparatus and electrical materials (-6.9%), leather goods, travel goods and footwear (-9.9%), other transportation equipment (-9.6%), basic metals (-2.7%), textiles (-7.2%), furniture (-7.6%), rubber and plastic products (-2.3%), and printing and reproduction of recorded media (-13.5%).

On the other hand, still comparing with February 2025, among the five activities that showed expansion in production, mining and quarrying industries (10.2%), coke, petroleum products and biofuels (4.0%), and pharmaceutical and chemical products (20.6%) exerted the greatest influence on the formation of the industry average, driven, to a large extent, by the increased production of crude oil, pelletized or sintered iron ores and natural gas in the first; ethyl alcohol, diesel fuel, naphtha and fuel oils in the second; and medicines in the third. It is also worth highlighting the positive contributions noted by the beverage sector (6.2%) and the maintenance, repair and installation of machinery and equipment (4.7%).

More about the survey

PIM Brasil has been producing short-term indicators since the 1970s related to the behavior of the real output of the mining and quarrying and manufacturing industries. Starting in March 2023, the publication of the new series of monthly industrial production indices began, following reformulations to update the sample of activities, products, and respondents, in order to develop a new weighting structure for the indices based on more recent industrial statistics; to update the base year of reference for the survey; and to incorporate new federative units in the publication of regional survey results. These methodological changes are necessary and seek to incorporate the economic changes in society.

The survey results can also be consulted in the Sidra database.

The next publication of industrial production – Brazil, with results for March 2026, will be on May 7th.

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