São Paulo – Brazilian exports to the Middle East and Africa dropped in September, according to the trade balance results disclosed on Tuesday (1) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. Last month, sales to the Middle East totalled US$ 1.041 billion, with a daily average of US$ 49.6 million. In the average calculation, exports to the region dropped 21% over September 2012. Sales to Africa, in turn, totalled US$ 931 million, with a daily average of US$ 44.3 million, a reduction of 21.7%.
According to the Ministry press statement, the reduction was a result of smaller shipments of beef, chicken, maize in grain, refined and bulk sugar, aluminium oxides and hydroxides, soy chaff and machinery for land levelling. Sales to the African nations, in turn, were lower due to a reduction in sales of aircraft, bulk and refined sugar, chicken and beef and maize in grain.
Brazilian imports from the Middle East, in turn, totalled US$ 320 million in September, with a daily average of US$ 15.2 million, a reduction of 64.3% over the same month in 2012. According to the Ministry, the purchases dropped due to lower imports of crude oil, insecticides, float glass and flexible-thread fibres. Imports of African products, on the other hand, grew 54.9% in the daily average in September, due to purchases of natural gas, naphtha and fertilizers. Imports from the continent totalled US$ 1.279 billion in September, with a daily average of US$ 60.9 million.
In the accumulated result for the year, exports to the Middle East totalled US$ 7.825 billion, according to Ministry calculations in September. Sales up to last month were 4.9% lower than in the same month in 2012. Imports totalled US$ 5.584 billion, 1.4% less than from January to September 2012. In the case of Africa, exports up to September totalled US$ 8.083 billion, or 7% less than from January to September 2012. This year, imports of African products recorded growth of 21.3%, to US$ 12.785 billion.
Trade balance
The total results for September show that Brazil had a surplus in September. Last month, the country exported US$ 20.996 billion and imported US$ 18.849 billion, with a positive result of US$ 2.147 billion. There was a reduction of 15.9% in the balance over the same period in 2012.
In the accumulated result for the year, Brazil accumulates a trade balance deficit of US$ 1.622 billion. From January to September 2012, the country the country had a trade surplus of US$ 15.702 billion, according to the results presented by the Ministry of Trade.
The Ministry’s balance shows that up to last month the country exported US$ 177.65 billion, a reduction of 1.6% over the daily export average. Imports this year had a record deficit of US$ 179.272 billion, 8.7% more than from January to September 2012.
In the accumulated result for this year, the main importers from Brazil were China, with purchases of US$ 35.9 billion, the United States (US$ 18.5 billion), Argentina (US$ 14.9 billion), the Netherlands (US$ 11.6 billion) and Japan (US$ 5.9 billion). The main suppliers to Brazil in the period were China (sales of US$ 27.8 billion), the United States (US$ 27.1 billion), Argentina (US$ 12.7 billion), Germany (US$ 11.3 billion) and South Korea (US$ 7.2 billion).
In an interview on Tuesday, in Brazilian capital Brasília, the Foreign Trade secretary at the Ministry, Daniel Godinho, stated that the trade balance surplus in September goes with the Brazilian government’s forecast of reverting the deficit accumulated up to the moment. According to information disclosed by Agência Brasil, foreign sales of oil returned to growth last month, helping expand exports. This year, sales of oil have presented a reduction of 34.6% as against 2012, as some platforms are under maintenance.
According to Godinho, exchange favourable to exports, the growth of shipments of soy in grain and appreciation of iron ore also helped generate the surplus. “Greater exports of oil generated a positive impact on the trade balance as a whole. We maintain the expectation of a trade surplus,” he said. In September, sales of iron ore grew 3.8%, those of soy in grain rose 65.9% and fuel oil sales climbed 47.7%, as against September 2012.
*Translated by Mark Ament
