The situation the industry finds itself in today is not ideal. Consumption levels have some ups and downs and differences between different sectors and have not yet accelerated a significant recovery. This situation leads to the appearance of various negative variables and now adds a matter that is increasingly worrying companies.
The Payment chaincurrently at the bottom of the industry pyramid, is showing the first cracks the fulfillment of obligations that take a long time to arrive or, in some cases, do not arrive at all.
The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) He put some numbers on this situation. According to a survey conducted in recent days, as many as 47.5% of respondents reported having problems meeting some of the most important payments they have to make. These include, for example, salaries, suppliers, financial obligations, public services and taxes.
Even, 8.2% of entrepreneurs stated that they had problems with all of the points mentionedundoubtedly a much more serious situation. At the top of the items with the biggest payment problems are two: taxes (with 29.3% positive answers) and suppliers with 26.7%, as well as one of those with some warning lights flashing.
For example, one of these alerts is what happens to rejected checks. Although the sectors do not yet have concrete figures, they agree that in the last quarter there was an increase of between 30 and 40% in payment instruments that were found to have no funds to pay the debts.
For this reason, in many cases only payment methods are accepted Cash and transfers.
Payment problems also arise for those who work with the state. Until a few months ago, traditional payment terms were between 30 and 45 days, but now extended to 60 to 90 daysa model that also contributes to the payment chain at least collapsing.
This panorama At the moment things are starting to get stronger among SMEs – usually suppliers to large industries – although they claim in the market that larger companies will also experience problems as they scale up.
Gerardo Fernandez He is president of the Confederation of Construction SMEs (CPC) and illustrates the problem. “Today we cannot say that the payment chain is broken, but we can say it it begins to fold and complicate. Situations are occurring that have never existed before and that are worrying,” the manager told Clarín.
Fernández talks about what he sees in his industry, but the truth is that similar situations occur in other areas too. When it comes to food, it is also noticeable that the payment chain is becoming increasingly complex. “We’re not seeing any major problems at the moment, at least in our case. But it’s true.” Some suppliers tell us they are having problems with their suppliers,” emphasized the sources interviewed.
The problem that can arise from this is that if things get tighter, there will be shortages of some products – in every industry. This is not happening now, but it could happen for two reasons: either because the producers at the end of the chain do not pay on time for the goods they need for their work, or – in a more extreme case, which is not in sight today – because the large industries are the ones who default on their payments and would obviously end up receiving neither the inputs nor the final products.
The most obvious case of this problem today is the Iconic Norton Winery. A few weeks ago, his delicate financial situation was exposed as he had accumulated more than 40 checks totaling $618 million were cashedwhile at the same time looming bank liabilities of over $42,000 million.
What is also noticeable for some companies is the low access to bank financing, which makes it difficult for them to take on debt. They reiterate that given the complications that the industry has shown, financial institutions are choosing not to make major innovations in the credit sector.
The truth is that the evolution of bank financing exclusively for companies in the second half of 2025 was characterized by a sharp real decline following the rise in interest rates.
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