São Paulo – The Brazilian trade balance closed May with a surplus of US$ 2.760 billion, a performance that helped reduce the 2015 deficit to US$ 2.305 billion. According to data from the period released this Monday (1st) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), in Brasília, exports and imports continued to drop last month in comparison with the same period in 2014. <\/p>\n
Last month, exports fetched US$ 16.769 billion or US$ 835.5 million by the daily average, an amount that means a decline of 15.2%. Imports from May of this year grossed US$ 14.008 billion with a daily average of US$ 700.4 million. In this comparison, the decline registered was of 26.6%. <\/p>\n
Over May of last year, exports dropped in three product categories. Shipments of finished products added up to US$ 5.810 billion or 8.6% less than May of last year. Shipments of semi-finished dropped 4.6% to US$ 1.991 billion and basic goods declined 20.8% to US$ 8.588 billion. <\/p>\n
Among basic products, the steepest decline happened in the sales of iron ore. Shipments of the product dropped 62.3% to US$ 931 million. Sales of beef dropped 25.1% and fetched US$ 349 million. Sales of copper ore dropped 19.2% with US$ 152 million, and sales of crude oil declined 15.9% to US$ 1.2 billion. <\/p>\n
Among the finished products, sales of airplanes declined 42.8% with US$ 157 million; Oxides and hydroxides of aluminum dropped 17.4% to US$ 181 million; and earth-moving machinery dropped 6% to US$ 108 million. <\/p>\n
The steepest declines in the sales of semi-finished were cellulose, with a drop of 20.8% to US$ 372 million; hides and skins, with a decline of 16.5% to US$ 205 million; and crude aluminum, with a decline of 10.6% to US$ 31 million. <\/p>\n
Among destinations, sales only increased to the Middle East, Latin America and Caribbean, with the exception of Mercosur and Africa. Exports to the Middle East increased 20.7% and had a boost from shipments of soybeans, refined sugar and beef, among others. Shipments to Latin America went up 13.1% due to increased sales of oil, polymers and freight vehicles, and sales to Africa went up 8.7% due to increased sales of sugar, beef and soybeans, among others. <\/p>\n
Imports<\/strong><\/p>\n Among importers, the steepest declines in value were registered with fuel and lubricants (decline of 44.3%), raw and intermediate materials (-25.3%), capital goods (-24.3%) and consumer goods (-16.1%). Among fuels and lubricants, MDIC stated that the reduction was due to declining prices of oil, naphtha, fuel oils, gas and natural gas. The Middle East was the only region with sales to Brazil going up: increase of 36% due to sales of oil, aviation kerosene, natural gas, airplanes and insecticides, among others. <\/p>\n *Translated by Sérgio Kakitani<\/strong><\/p>\n