São Paulo – Exports from Brazil to the Middle East were up 30.1% year-on-year in October, the Brazilian Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services said this Wednesday (1). Sales to the region came out to USD 1.096 billion during the month, at 5.8% of total export revenue for Brazil.
The hike in sales was driven by automobiles, aircraft engines and turbines, beef, chassis and motors, livestock, iron ore, maize, refined sugar, soybeans and coffee beans.
Imports from the Middle East to Brazil amounted to USD 332 million, up 20.3% year-on-year. The most imported items were crude oil, urea, potassium chloride, acyclic alcohols and their halogen-based products, natural gas, superphosphates, fertilizers, kerosene, plastic polymers, raw aluminum, sulphur, and plastic sheets and strips.
Total exports from Brazil reached USD 18.877 last month, up 31.1% year-on-year and down 3.7% month-on-month based on average daily numbers. Imports were up 14.5% year-on-year and down 3.4% month-on-month, to USD 13.676 billion.
Brazil ran a USD 5.201 billion trade surplus in October, up 122.5% from the surplus in October 2016. The Ministry said this was the best surplus on record for an October.
Year-to-date through October, exports reached USD 183.481 billion and imports amounted to USD 125.004 billion, up 19.9% and 9,1% from a year ago based on average daily figures. The trade surplus was an all-time high at USD 58.477 billion, up 51,8% from 2016.
The director of Statistics and Support to Exports at the Ministry’s Foreign Trade Secretariat, Herlon Brandão, said the expected whole-year surplus was revised up from USD 60 billion to between USD 65 billion and USD 70 billion.
“This is justified by how exports are behaving. We have an added USD 30 billion, with a number of items performing well, like soy, iron ore and iron and steel products, both in terms of volume and export prices,” said Brandão.
Foreign sales from Brazil to the Middle East were up 17.9% year-to-date through October to UsD 9.835 billion. Imports to Brazil from the Middle East reached USD 3.149 billion, up 6.2%.
With information from Agência Brasil. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
