India, Brazil sign mining pact as Modi targets $20 billion trade in five years

India moved to deepen trade ties with Brazil on Saturday, signing a pact to expand cooperation in mining and minerals as it seeks to meet rising domestic steel demand and support capacity expansion amid a global race for raw materials.

The agreement was signed in the presence of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who arrived in New Delhi earlier this week for a three-day visit.

Brazil is among the world’s top producers of iron ore and holds large reserves of minerals critical to steelmaking. Closer cooperation is expected to improve India’s access to raw materials and technologies needed to sustain long-term growth in its steel sector, an Indian government statement said.

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT

The cooperation will focus on attracting investment in exploration, mining and steel sector infrastructure, the statement said.

India has steelmaking capacity of 218 million metric tons, and companies are expanding output to meet rising domestic demand driven by infrastructure development and industrialisation.

Addressing a meeting with a Brazilian delegation led by Lula, Modi said their talks had focused on ways to deepen the India-Brazil trade partnership.

“We are committed to taking bilateral trade much beyond $20 billion in the next five years,” Modi said.

Bilateral trade between the two countries currently stands at about $15 billion.

“Our nations will also work closely in areas such as technology, innovation, digital public infrastructure, AI, semiconductors and more,” Modi said.

LARGEST TRADING PARTNER IN LATIN AMERICA

India and Brazil have been strategic partners since 2006, with cooperation spanning trade, defence, energy, agriculture, health, critical minerals, technology and digital infrastructure. Brazil is India’s largest trading partner in the Latin America and Caribbean region, and the two countries work closely on global issues such as U.N. reform, climate change and counter-terrorism.

According to Datamar data, bilateral container trade between the two BRICS nations is currently led by iron and steel scrap (19.79% of the total), cotton for the textile industry (15.49%), and raw timber (14.23%) on the outbound Brazilian leg. Conversely, Brazilian inbound shipments from India consist primarily of auto parts (19.8%), insecticides and herbicides (8.35%), and tires (6%).

The following chart provides a comparative analysis of containerized trade volumes (imports and exports) between Brazil and India from January 2022 to December 2025. The data is sourced from Datamar’s DataLiner platform:

Exports & Imports | Brazil – India | Jan 2022 – Dec 2025 | TEUs

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

Lula on Thursday advocated for Brazil and India to conduct trade in their own currencies rather than settling transactions in U.S. dollars, but dismissed speculation that the BRICS group of countries, of which both nations are members, would create a common currency.

Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Mayank Bhardwaj.

Source: Reuters

Sharing is caring!