Brazil`s chemical products trade registers deficit of US$9 billion in first quadrimester

Chemical imports grew by 10.5% in the first four months of 2020 year-on-year, when imports totaled 14.6 million tonnes. According to the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (Abiquim), these numbers break the record for the most imports in this specific time. There were considerable increases in practically all chemical groups, such as an 11% increase in inorganic imports, a 14% increase in organic, and a 7.6% increase in resins and elastomers. Export throughput from January to April totaled 5 million tons, marking an increase of 21.3% when compared to the first four months of 2019, which was mainly due to a growth in inorganic products exports (43%).

The chemical product trade deficit declined slightly in the fourth month period by 1.1% when compared to the same period last year, totaling US$9 billion.  During this period, US$12.7 billion worth of chemical products were imported and US$3.7 billion were exported, marking decreases of 3.7% and 9.3%, respectively. Chemicals accounted for 22.9% of Brazilian imports, equivalent to US$55.6 billion, and 5.5% of exports, generating US$67.4 billion.

Over the last twelve months (May 2019 to April 2020), there was a deficit of US$31.8 billion, second only to the deficit in 2013, which stood at US$32 billion. During this period, 14.7 million tons were shipped abroad, and, for the first time in the entire history of the commercial balance of chemical products (monitored since 1991), more than 49 million tons were imported, a behavior that was not slowed down by the devaluation of the real against the dollar nor by the significant drop in national economic activity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

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