Isaura Daniel*
isaura.daniel@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Brazil should end the year of 2007 having purchased 36.8% more chemicals than in 2006. By the end of the year, according to estimates by the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (Abiquim), US$ 24 billion in chemicals should have been imported. Last year, Brazilian acquisitions of sector products totalled US$ 17.4 billion. These imports include products form the Arab countries, among them fertilizers and naphtha for the petrochemical industry, according to José de Freitas Mascarenhas, member of the board of governors at Brazilian chemical company Braskem. Up to the month of October, imports reached US$ 19.6 billion, posting growth of 38%.
The increase in imports should generate a sector trade balance deficit of US$ 13 billion, with growth of 54% over 2006. One of the reasons for this increase, according to sector sources, is the price increase of one of the raw materials, oil, making it hard for new investment to be made in the domestic industry and, therefore, complicating the expansion of domestic production. "The price of raw materials rises at a rate that is hard to for industry to manage," said Mascarenhas. The chemical product market was the theme, on Friday, of the 12th National Meeting of the Chemical Industry, promoted by the Abiquim.
Brazilian imports of chemical products, according to the vice president of the Abiquim board, Pedro Wongtschowski, come mainly from the United States and Europe. The kinds of chemical products that Brazil most purchased abroad, up to October, were inorganic, including fertilizers and their products, industrial gas, chlorine and alkalis. Purchases of these products totalled US$ 5 billion. Organic products, like pigments, greases, basic petrochemicals, intermediaries for thermoplastic and thermo fixed resins came in second place, at US$ 4,3 billion. The third most imported products were pharmaceutical, which totalled US$ 4.2 billion, followed by resins and elastomers, with US$ 2.4 billion.
The largest increase in imports, between January and October this year, in comparison with the same months last year, was in inorganic products, whose imports rose 66.3%, followed by pesticides, 51.7%, and organics and soaps, detergents, cleaning products and articles for the perfumery sector, whose purchases rose 33.2%. According to sector leaders, these imports present an opportunity for greater Brazilian production. Currently, according to Wongtschowski, this is not taking place as chemical industry profitability is low.
Despite the trade balance deficit, the Brazilian chemical industry also increased its export revenues. This year, revenues should reach US$ 101 billion, according to Abiquim, with growth of 22% over last year. Exports should total US$ 11 billion, 20% more than in 2006. Brazil should remain as the ninth nation with the greatest chemical industry in terms of net revenues. Within the country, however, the sector should slip to the third largest share of the industrial Gross Domestic Product, having been in the second position in 2006.
*Translated by Mark Ament
