Desempenho do setor industrial cearense no período 2002-2012: há desindustrialização?

Abstract

Ceará, a Brazilian state located in the Brazilian Northeastern region has 86,8% of its territory inserted in the semiarid area. In the last decades it has experienced a continuous growth process. Its industrial structure is composed by traditional industries, such as food and beverages, textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods, civil construction, services industries and agriculture. This paper aims to analyze the performance of Ceará's industrial sector in the 2002-2012 period, trying to verify whether Ceará has experienced a deindustrialization process or not. To fulfill this objective, a brief review of the literature with respect to deindustrialization process was done, emphasizing the different approaches concerning descriptive and comparative statistical analysis, as well as, an evaluation of some indicators used in the literature on the subject. The results points to a considerable decrease of the Gross Value-Added Product, along with loss in the employment in the manufacturing industry in Ceará, disclosing a clear process of deindustrialization.