São Paulo – Amid the crisis wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has countries around the world embracing self-isolation among other measures, Brazil stepped up its imports in some sectors this month. Foreign purchases went up for items including sanitary equipment and accessories, livestock, pipes, tubes and hoses, wheat, coal, fertilizers, taps, ethylene polymers and electric generators.
Up until the third week of April, imports to Brazil averaged 609,000 tons a day, up 12% year-over-year. The value of imports slid 10% to USD 582 million. The numbers were made public by the Ministry of Economy’s Secretariat for Foreign Trade.
Agriculture and livestock products imports increased the most to date this month. Average daily imports came out to 63,000 tons, up 36%, year-over-year. The volume of non-ground barley imports was up 278%. Another highlight was ‘Livestock, not including fish or crustaceans,’ up 456% in volume.
Imports of process industry items – which make up the bulk of imports to Brazil – also climbed, by 7%, although the amount spent on these purchases was smaller than in April 2019. Pipes, tubes and hoses and their plastic accessories was one of the categories that saw imports go up the most. Brazil also stepped up its purchases of sanitary, piping and heating accessories and equipment.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
