São Paulo – Brazilian trade balance has registered down US$ 2.125 bn last month, the worst for the period since the beginning of the historical series, in 1994. In February, Brazil has exported US$ 15.934 bn and imported US$ 18.059 bn, according to information released this Thursday (06) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC in the Portuguese acronym). Previously, the worst result had been last February, with a US$ 1.2 bn deficit.
According to the balance by MDIC, Brazil has presented a drop in the shipment of three product categories in February. The shipment of basic consumer goods were US$ 7.171 bn, semi manufactured products totaled US$ 2.157 bn, and manufactured products US$ 6.086 bn. By the daily average, exports of basic consumer goods dropped 8.5%, semi manufactured products 8.7% and manufactured goods 9.2%. Overall, Brazilian exports were US$ 796.7 mn in February, an amount 7.8% inferior to the daily average of shipments in February 2013.
Among the basic consumer goods, maize grains summed up US$ 212 mn, down 70.5% in relation to February 2013; soybean meal were US$ 270 mn, down 31.6% over the same period last year; and crude oil US$ 796 mn, down 30.6%. Conversely, the sales of soy rose 141.4% and reached US$ 1.4 bn, cattle rose 70.9% and reached US$ 76 mn, meat rose 29.8% reaching US$ 502 mn, and copper ore 15.1%, to US$ 172 mn.
Among the semi manufactured products, the shipments in semi manufactured gold dropped 47.4%, to US$ 117 mn, semi manufactured iron/steel dropped 21%, to US$ 217 mn, and cellulose 18.3%, to US$ 370 mn. The highest decrease in the shipment of manufactured products was in refined sugar (down 57.7%, to US$ 138 mn), aircrafts (down 53.9%, to US$ 123 mn) and passenger vehicles (down 35.8%, with sales of US$ 238 mn).
The main buyers of Brazilian goods in the period were China, the USA, Argentina, Netherlands and Japan. Last month, the exports to the EU dropped 20.5%, to Africa, 18.2%, to Middle East, 13.1%, to Latin America and Caribbean dropped to 9.3% and to Mercosur, were 11.1% lower. Sales increased 10% in East Europe, 3.2% to Asia, and 3% to the USA.
Among the imports, which were in an all-time high for the period of February; there was an increase of 7.9% in purchases of fuel and lubricants, and 2% in the consumer goods. The purchases of capital goods dropped 13.1% and raw materials and intermediate goods were 5.1% lower. By the daily average of all the products, a total of US$ 912.9 mn were imported, 3.4% lower than last February.
The main suppliers to Brazil last month were China, the USA, Argentina, Germany and Nigeria. Brazilian purchases made by Mercosur countries dropped 25.4%, in Eastern Europe dropped 16.9% and EU, 9.4%. There have been increases in the purchases from Middle East (high 34.4%), Africa (23.9%), Latin America and Caribbean (5.5%), the USA (2.9%) and Asia (0.4%).
Last year, the losses totalled US$ 6.1 bn. In the same period of 2013, the deficit raked up in January and February was US$ 5.3 bn.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça