The Brazilian trade balance registered its best H1 in 29 years. According to data from the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services, the difference between imports and exports left a positive balance of US$ 36.2 billion in the period.

With Brazilian products increasingly competitive in the international market, exports stood at US$ 107.7 billion in H1 2017, while imports totalled US$ 71.5 billion.

The trade balance for the first half of the year shows a strongly positive trend, with the surplus up 53.1% from the first half of 2016. The results are also favourable in year-to-date terms: a US$ 60.2 billion surplus.

All three main export categories showed improvement in the first half of the year. Commodities advanced 27.2% compared to 2016 to US$ 52.458 billion, semimanufactured goods grew by 17.5% to US$ 15.052 billion, and manufactured goods rose 10.1% to US$ 37.667 billion.

Top selling products

Exports of crude oil (128.2%), iron ore (82.7%), pork (29.0%), soybeans (20.0%), Copper ore (19.9%), coffee beans (9.0%) and chicken meat (7.3%).

Among the semimanufactured products, the largest increases were in sales of semi-manufactured iron / steel (70.6%), cast iron (48.5%), raw sugar (36.4%), ), Crude soybean oil (19.3%), ferroalloys (10.3%) and cellulose (9.7%).

In the group of manufactured goods, growth occurred mainly in fuel oils (122.0%), cargo vehicles (59.2%), refined sugar (56.5%), passenger cars (52.8%), tractors , 2%), flat rolled products (34.7%), earthmoving machines (32.0%), shoes (17.1%), aluminum oxides / hydroxides.