São Paulo – Machinery exports from Brazil fetched USD 705 million in May, up 12.3% from April and 1.3% from May 2016, the Brazilian Machinery Builders’ Association (Abimaq) reported this Wednesday (28).<\/p>\n
Year-to-date through May, exports came out to USD 3.33 billion, up 1.1% from the comparable period in 2016, “There was a sharp drop in April and a rebound in May, but those have come to be expected seasonal fluctuations,” Agência Brasil<\/em> quoted Abimaq competitiveness director Mário Bernardini as saying. <\/p>\n April had seen exports drop by 34% over March and by 8% over April 2016. <\/p>\n The exports result in May was driven by sales of process industry machinery (27.1%), logistics and civil construction machinery (25.5%) and consumer goods manufacturing machinery (23.5%). Year-to-date through May, foreign sales of farm machinery were a highlight with a 51% increase. <\/p>\n “Growth is picking up after dropping in 2015. The industry is doing better than any other sector of the economy, and the exchange rate has begun to enable the industry to be competitive,” said Abimaq board chairman João Carlos Marchesan according to Agência Brasil<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the first five months of 2017, Latin America remained the biggest market for Brazil, with sales to Mercosur countries going up by 27.9%. The second biggest buyer was the United States, whose imports from Brazil increased by 3.6%. Exports from Brazil to Europe and China slid by 25.6% and 28.4% respectively. <\/p>\n Machinery imports to Brazil went up by 8.7% in May from April to USD 914.53 million. Year-on-year in May, however, imports were down 23.8%. Brazil’s year-to-date imports came out to USD 5.055 billion, down 16.9% from a year ago. <\/p>\n Abimaq said imports increased almost across the board in May from April, with agricultural, logistics and civil construction machinery seeing the biggest increments. Year-to-date through May, however, the only category whose imports increased was farm machinery. <\/p>\n Income<\/strong><\/p>\n Brazil’s machinery and equipment industry had a net income of BRL 6 billion (USD 1.8 billion) in May, up 24% from April and 5.3% from May 2016, breaking a 25-month downtrend. However, net income was down 7.1% year-to-date to BRL 26.135 billion (USD 7.898 billion). <\/p>\n “There was a chance of some recovery, which might evolve into growth, but sadly the latest political developments have spilled over into the economic environment,” Bernardini remarked according to Agência Brasil<\/em>, in a reference to the charges against president Michel Temer.<\/p>\n The hike in exports and net income in May did not translate into new jobs. As the month ended there were 292,200 persons employed in the industry, a slight 0.2% drop over April and down 5.6% over May 2016.<\/p>\n *Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n