Brazilian imports of plastic resins will continue increasing next year despite the financial crisis and trade agreements with the Mercosur and Aladi trade blocs, according to Mariângela Guazelli, commercial director of Chemi Market, a specialist in the international trade of chemicals and petrochemicals.
"Resin imports will be higher in 2009 than in 2007. In an open market imports and exports grow naturally, exports don't exist without imports," the executive explained.
The most important cause of the hike in imports, especially since 2007, is the depreciation of the dollar against the local currency, the real. "Also with high domestic prices, it's more profitable to bring the products from overseas," Guazelli added.
Brazil's petrochemicals consolidation had an impact on imports too, as it affected distribution nationwide. With the reorganization of the big petrochemical companies, such as Petrobras, Braskem and Quattor, a lot of distributors lost their concessions to supply some types of resins, according to Guazelli.
Statistics from the national association of plastic industries Abiplast show that imports of plastic resins reached US$1.18bn in January-August this year, up 65% compared to the same period of 2007.
Imports came mostly from the Nafta region, except Mexico, accounting for 35% of the total, followed by Mercosur with 26%, and Asia, excluding the Middle East, and the EU both with 13%.
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