Trade balance hits a US$700m surplus in the third week of August

The Brazilian trade balance recorded a surplus of US$700m in the third week of August, according to data released on Monday (08/19) by the Special Secretariat of Foreign Trade and International Affairs of the Ministry of Economy (Secint/ME). The positive balance is the result of exports of US$3.99bn and imports of US$3.29bn.

In the month, exports totaled US$9.99bn and imports totaled US$8.77bn, with a positive balance of US$1.22bn. In the year, exports are totaled at US$139.99bn and imports are totaled at US$110.29bn, with a positive balance of US$29.70bn.

Third-week exports averaged US$797.7m, down 7% from the US$857.4m average by the second week. The reduction reflected the 19.6% drop in exports of semi-manufactured goods – from US$120.7m to US$97m – and from 17.5% in manufactured goods – from US$306.1m to US$252.5m.

In semi-manufactured goods, the result came from decreased sales of iron/steel, ferroalloys, raw cast iron, semi-manufactured gold, and raw zinc. Manufactured output was impacted mainly by the reduction in sales of aviation engines and turbines, passenger cars, taps, valves, and similar devices, as well as cargo vehicles.

On the other hand, basic sales increased by 4.1%, from US$430.6m to US$448.2m, due to soybeans, crude oil, crude cotton, beef, and live cattle.

In imports, the balance pointed to a fall of 16% over the same period of comparison, falling from US$782.9m on average until the second week to US$657.5m on the third week average. In this case, there was an impact mainly on expenses with mechanical equipment, organic and inorganic chemicals, electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, fuels, and lubricants.

Month Review

Comparing the average up to the third week of August 2019 with August 2018, Brazilian exports decreased 11.2% from US$937.1m to US$797.7m. The main reason was a 24.9% reduction in manufactured product sales from US$377.6m to US$287.1m due to flexible iron/steel tubes, centrifuges, and filtering or purifying devices, flat rolled iron/steel, passenger cars and freight vehicles.

The 4.8% reduction in basic exports also had an effect, from US$459.9m to US$437.9m, mainly in copper ore, soybeans, soybean meal, crude oil, beef and chicken.

The counterpoint was sales of semi-manufactured products, which rose 20.6%, jumping from US$91.9m to US$110.8m. Positive performance was driven by semi-manufactured iron/steel, ferroalloys, raw aluminum, raw cane sugar, and raw cast iron.

Compared to July 2019, however, there was a 4.5% reduction in exports, due to the 8.9% decrease in commodity sales, which went from US$480.6m to US$437.9m, and manufactured goods, which fell 1.2% from US$287.1m to US$283.7m. On the other hand, during this period, sales of semi-manufactured goods increased from US$104.2m to US$110.8m (+ 6.3%).

Imports

In imports, the daily average up until the third week of August 2019 was US$730.7m, 10.5% below the August 2018 average, which reached US$816.4m. In this comparison, expenses were mainly reduced with copper and its works (-49.8%), fuels and lubricants (-35.5%), motor vehicles and parts (-28.9%), fertilizers (-16.7%), and cereals and products from the milling industry (-14.1%).

Compared to July 2019, there was a decrease of 5.4%, due to the decrease in aircraft and parts (-51.2%), copper and its works (-42.9%), fuels and lubricants (-32.9%), pharmaceuticals (-18.6%), and plastics and its works (-8.6%).

Source: Comex do Brasil

Sharing is caring!