São Paulo – The Brazilian trade balance’s surplus reached USD 1.6 billion in the first six business days of April up to last Friday, according to data released this Monday (11) by the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex), a body of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC). In the period, on April 1 to 8, Brazil registered revenues of USD 4.6 billion with exports, and spent USD 3.03 billion with imports.
The daily average of exports went up and the value average of imports slid down. Shipments generated revenues of USD 777.1 million per business day, 2.5% higher than the average of April 2015. Arrivals of imported products totaled USD 506.5 million per day, 30.9% less than the same month of last year.
Semi-finished products, up 20.2%, contributed the most for exports positive performance. There was an increase in exports of copper cathodes, raw sugar, cast iron, cocoa butter and oil, semi-finished gold, wood pulp, semi-finished products of iron and steel and ferro-alloys. There was also an increase of 5.1% in the trade of basic goods, especially soy beans, pork and poultry, tobacco and soy bran.
In turn, finished products generated 5.2% less revenues with exports in these first days of the month in comparison to the same period of last year. There was a decline in sales of aluminum oxides and hydroxides, aircrafts, auto parts, electrical engines and generators, engines for vehicles, pumps and compressors, and earth-moving equipment.
The products to drive down imports the most were steel products, fuels and lubricants, auto and auto parts, mechanical equipment, electrical and electronic devices, and rubbers and by-products.
Year-to-date, which includes the period from the beginning of January until the second week of April, exports generated revenues of USD 45.2 billion to Brazil, with imports generating USD 34.2 billion. The surplus is at USD 10 billion. In the same days of last year, there was a deficit of USD 5.4 billion in the trade balance.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani