São Paulo – Brazil posted a USD 4.861 billion trade surplus this month, the biggest for a month of April since records started being kept in 1989. The Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade reported this Monday (2nd) that export revenues climbed 1.4% last month from April 2015 to USD 15.374 billion. Imports slid 28.3% to USD 10.513 billion.
Exports averaged USD 768.7 million a day in the month, up from USD 757.8 million a year ago. The Ministry said basic/semi-finished goods went up, with foreign sales of finished goods going down.
Basic goods exports rose 2.5% year-on-year in April to USD 7.739 billion. Products whose sales increased the most include maize, up 81.4% to USD 58 million; soybeans, up 39.4% to USD 3.5 billion; pork, up 16.9% to USD 100 million; and poultry, up 10.5% to USD 533 million.
Semi-finished goods exports equaled USD 1.837 billion in April, up 6.9% from April 2015. Copper cathode exports were up 370.3% to USD 69 million. Raw sugar exports soared 78.3% to USD 380 million, and semi-finished gold exports gained 67.5% to USD 119 million.
Finished goods exports shrank 1.3% to USD 5.433 billion. The biggest declines were in sales of electric motors and generators, down 27.3% to USD 99 million; and auto parts, down 26.5% to USD 144 million. Finished goods whose sales went up the most were taps and valves, up 221.2% to USD 130 million, and passenger cars, up 67.6% to USD 362 million.
Year-on-year in April, sales increased to Oceania, Africa, Asia and the Middle East and dropped to Central America and the Caribbean, the United States, the Mercosur and the European Union. Exports to the Middle East grew 0.5%, driven by poultry and beef, soybean, sugar, soya bran, cast iron pipes, chassis and engines, and pumps and compressors. Exports to Africa gained 0.7% on the back of sugar, beef, vehicles and materials sales.
Conversely, imports averaged USD 525.7 million a day, down from USD 733.3 million in April of last year. Imports declined for fuels and lubricants, capital goods, consumer goods and intermediate goods. Markets-wise, imports fell 40.1% from Asia, 36.4% from Africa, 26.1% from Central America/Caribbean, 24.8% from the United States and Oceania, 21.9% from the European Union and 15.9% from the Mercosur. The Middle East was the only region whose exports to Brazil increased, by 3.7%, driven by natural gas, aviation kerosene, urea, fertilizers, acyclic alcohols, and raw lead.
Year-to-date through April, exports from Brazil equaled USD 55.948 billion, averaging USD 690.7 million per day. The daily average is down 3.4% from a year ago. From January through April, imports amounted to USD 42.699 billion, averaging USD 527.1 million per day, down 32.2%. A USD 13.249 billion trade surplus was registered through April, as against a USD 5.059 billion deficit in the year-ago period.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
