This paper assesses the results of the restructuring process of the Brazilian textile machinery industry, started in the late 1980's and beginning of the 1990's and deepened by the liberal macroeconomic policies supporting the Plano Real, since July 1994. First, we analyze theoretically the knowledge sources and the capacitation modes in this industry. Second, we show briefly the main global characteristics of this industry. Third, we redirect our investigation to the Brazilian case, presenting the specificities of the domestic textile industry, user of those capital goods, and also of the Brazilian textile machinery industry. Making an assessment by means of the Brazilian textile machinery industry foreign trade as well as of the change in the mean prices (US$ FOB/KG) of these trade inflows and outflows, between 1990 and 2004, the paper evaluate the structural, technological and, therefore, the competitive changes which culminated in the transformation of this industry in its dimensions (scale) and scope, and in its new international role, nowadays more specialized and subordinated.
Firm organization; Industrial policy; Industrialization; Manufacturing and service industries; Trade policy; Factor movement policy; Foreign exchange policy
