[2019-04-09] Exports from Brazil to China almost totally focused on raw materials

Source: Macauhub

Brazilian industrial products represent a minuscule share of total exports to China, accounting for just 2.31% of total exports to the country in the first quarter of 2019, Comex in Brazil reported.

Comex said that, after the first quarter of the year, China remains Brazil’s main trading partner, a position it reached in 2009, but added that industrial products accounted for just US$312 million out of a total of US$15.523 billion.

Figures from the Office of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economy showed that China was the final destination of 25.7% of Brazil’s total exports in the last quarter, with the United States in second place, which imported Brazilian goods in the amount of US$6.667 billion.

Comex also noted that, despite the strong concentration in raw materials, sales to China started 2019 with robust growth of 13.56% in the first quarter, while exports to the United States grew by just 4.5 %.

Brazil imported from China products worth US$10.228 billion in the first three months of the year, 24.3% of total Brazilian imports and a 31.6% increase, giving Brazil a trade surplus of US$3.297 billion.

Brazil’s surplus in its trade with the United States was US$143 million.

Comex said that the share of raw materials in exports to China is 87.8%, or almost 90% for the first time in the history of Sino-Brazilian trade, which is a matter of great concern to the government and to the Brazilian productive sector.

The Comex website also reported that while the share of raw materials grew consistently over the period under review, the export of industrial goods contracted by 35% to US$312 million.

Comex Brasil is a website launched in January 2013 with the aim, according to its promoters, of “transforming it into a safe and reliable source of information and analysis of issues related mainly to foreign trade and agribusiness.”