Savi’s Clipping #13
During 2022, foreign trade was very present in people’s daily lives. For this weekly clipping, we´ll have a review of the main events that moved the scenario last year.
- Freight rates return to pre-pandemic levels
After a sharp rise due to the pandemic, ocean freight prices returned to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022, bringing a relief to importers and exporters. It is expected that 2023 will see no increase in prices and companies will be able to be more competitive.
- Brazilian trade balance closes in surplus
After several months of overplus, Brazil ended the year with a growth of almost 22% over the previous year, reaching a surplus of USD 60 billion. From this figure, USD 328 billion were in exports (19.4% more than in 2021) and USD 268 billion in imports (meaning an increase of 25%).
About exports, the highlight of the year was the agricultural sector. As for imports, the biggest gain was in the extractive industry, with oil, coal and gas.
- Brazilian cachaça sets an export record
To celebrate the positive balance of trade, another highlight was the Brazilian cachaça market, that closed the year with an export record, reaching 9 million liters. Now it is already possible to drink a good cachaça in Portugal, which was the market that most imported this product from Brazil.
- Pandemic and China
Just when we thought that the pandemic was under control, we had to encounter new lockdowns in China. Covid’s strict containment measures caused many protests and some delays at port operations, especially in Shanghai. More recently, however, China has loosened the rules and is expected to be more open to the market.
- Russia-Ukraine War
At the end of February, last year, tension increased and Russia started armed attacks on Ukraine, annexing territories and causing a lot of political and economic uncertainties to the world.
The entire logistics chain suffered a significant amount in Europe and, despite the economic sanctions applied, the war is still not over.
With the war, a European weakness came to light: the great dependence on Russia for gas as an energy source.
- World Inflation
The effects of the pandemic and the war were felt in the economy through inflation. The whole world went through economic adjustments, mainly because the supply network was affected, due to the uncontrolled prices of commodities.
- Semiconductor market and geopolitical tensions
China and Taiwan have been involved in a cold war, with China doing several military training exercises around the island of Taiwan.
Taiwan’s main commodities are semiconductors and, with the geopolitical tensions, such market has suffered greatly. Consequently, many companies – and even governments – are reviewing their policies to produce more chips. Enterprises, like Apple, have moved the production of some of their components from China to India, and the US is encouraging chip production domestically.
- DUIMP Advances
In Brazil, importers have had news related to the single import declaration (DUIMP), since it got record public consultations for the product catalog attributes. The Brazilian Federal Revenue received more than 10,000 consultations for all NCMs of the External Tariff.
The project – which is part of the new import process – is intended to bring more international competitiveness and has therefore made significant strides in 2022. On the other hand, although it has been running since 2018, it has suffered delays due to the pandemic.