Brazilian container imports up in February

With the second wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country and the health system collapsing, what was the state of the Brazilian economy in February? Data recently released by DataLiner show that in the second month of the year, imports via container totaled 228,758 TEU, while exports reached 227,552 TEU, a small difference of -1% between imports and exports. In January, this difference had been -11%. In February 2020, with exports exceeding imports by 8%.

See the graph below for monthly differences between exports and imports since January 2020:

Comparison of Brazilian Exports and Imports | Jan 2020 to Feb 2021 | TEU

Source: DataLiner

In the graph below, see the February container movement for the last five years:

Comparison of February Container Handling by Year | Feb 2017-2021 | TEU

 

Imports

Container imports in February grew 15% compared to the same month in 2020. See the chart below:

Comparison of Brazilian Imports for the First Bimester | Jan and Feb 2020-2021 | TEU

Source: DataLiner

During the first two months of 2021, the main sources of imports were China (185,248 TEU), the United States (47,783 TEU), Belgium (23,938 TEU), Germany (16,557 TEU), India (16,115 TEU), Italy (14,096 TEU), Mexico (13,449 TEU), and Korea (12,142 TEU).

In the first two months of 2021, Brazil imported 19.62% more containers than during the first two months of 2020. In relation to imports from the United States, the increase was 10.80% in the same period.

Exports

Exports, on the other hand, increased by 6% compared to February 2020; this was also an increase compared to January, which had grown 3% in comparison with January 2020. The data can be seen in the graph below:

Comparison of Brazilian Exports for the First Bimester | Jan and Feb 2020-2021 | TEU

Source: DataLiner

The main destinations for containers of Brazilian products in the first two months of 2021 were the United States (73,714 TEU), China (61,384 TEU), Mexico (18,289 TEU), the Netherlands (14,265 TEU), Colombia (13,474 TEU), Vietnam (12,983 TEU), Japan (10,790 TEU) and Peru (10,441 TEU).

It is worth noting that exports via container to the United States in the first two months of 2021 grew 24.13% compared to the same period in 2020. Shipments to China rose 10.07% in the same comparison.

Perspectives

For the month of March, a surplus is expected since the Ministry of Economy has announced the Brazilian trade balance registered a surplus of US $ 1.268 billion up to the 3rd week in March. In the period, exports totaled US$ 15.808 billion and imports totaled US$ 14.540 billion. When considering the average value per working day, exports increased by 26.4% compared to March 2020. The increase in imports was 46.9%.

The increase in exports was driven by the 76.2% growth in extractive industry sales, mainly iron ore and copper. Agricultural sales increased by 20.8%, driven by unroasted coffee, soybeans, and cotton. The manufacturing industry exports grew 11%.

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