20 Largest Importers of Brazil - Part 1

Rebeca Duran

Staff Writer
The Brazil Business

Updated

4 February 2014

The largest importers of 2013 are a mix of both Brazilian and foreign based companies. In this article, you'll see the first 10 on the list of the 20 largest importers of Brazil.

1) Petrobras

The semi-public Brazilian multinational energy company Petrobras, an abbreviation of Petróleo Brasileiro S/A, is a major importer and exporter coincidentally. The company, headquarter in Rio de Janeiro, is by far the most important entity acting domestically in the oil and gas sector. The corporation is also responsible for domestic oil refining operations.

Petrobras has had to increase imports of oil and its derivatives in recent years due to national demand outstripping Petrobras' refinning capacity, and subsequently the supply they are able to produce. According to Exame's oil rankings, its derivatives, gas, alcohol and others are the major products that compose the list of Petrobras's imports, positioning the multinational as the largest importer of 2013.

2) Samsung

The South Korean electronic company, Samsung, is one of ten largest global brands of the world. The brand arrived in Brazil in 1995 and since then has been commercializing its products in the country. Founded in Seoul in 1985 by a team of scientists at the Research Institute of Technology of Korea, Samsung rapidly gained prestige by innovations in digital imaging technology.

Two years after its founding , the company started to export their equipment to other countries. In Brazil, Samsung is headquartered in São Paulo and has 15 local branches and is present in all Brazilian states. The company was responsible for and import amount of 3,848,526,299 USD in 2013 just in Brazil.

3) Braskem

Braskem is a Brazilian petrochemical company responsible for the process referred to as cracking, which transforms the naphtha into its molecular components. In Brazil, naphtha was only produced by Petrobras, but with the end of the corporation monopoly in 2002, naphtha started to be acquired by other companies.

However, the naphtha produced in Brazil wasn't enough to supply the national demand of this product. Nowadays, almost one third of the naphtha consumed in the country is attained from importers. With Braskem being the only Brazilian petrochemical with four chemical crackers, the company is one of the largest importers in 2013, being placed in the second place on Exame's ranking.

4) Toyota

A major auto manufacturer of the world, the Japanese Toyota, announced it had manufactured over 10 million vehicles in 2013, a record in the industry's history. Of the total, 4.29 million were manufactured in Japan (42% of total) and 5.83 million abroad. The group explained that its production increased in almost all regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia and Asia).

In Brazil, the car assembler that imported the most components in 2013 was Toyota, due to the assembly of the new car of the branch, Etios. The vehicle assembly depends on many foreign pieces, starting with the engine, for example. Approximately, 2,57 billion USD were bought by the Japanese company, an increase of 10.83% in relation to 2012.

5) Cisa Trading

The Brazilian trading company, Cisa Trading, born from the union of Coimex Trading with Comvix Trading in 1997. Cisa Trading was founded with the purpose of import and export products on behalf and under order. Currently, Cisa Trading serves more than 200 medium and large size companies of many segments, providing integrated services in operational, tax, financial and logistic areas.

The company was responsible for an amount of almost 2.6 billion USD in imports for industry and trade in 2013. The sectors comprised by the company are electronics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, vehicles and capital goods.

6) Embraer

With the fall of Brazilian competitiveness the Brazilian aircraft producer, Embraer started to produce aircraft pieces in Portugal and then importing it to Brazil. The company has two factories that in Evora (Portugal) that assemble components to the tail and wings of the Legacy 500 jets. Parts are sent by ship to Brazil and then enter the final assembly of the aircraft in the country.

According to Embraer, it wasn’t the costs which led to the installation of the factories in Portugal. The factories are part of an overall strategy of the company and, in the case of Portugal , the supply of skilled labor and transparent tax system were positive factors for the installation of the factories.

7) Volkswagen

The German car assembler, Volkswagen has been operating in Brazil for 60 years. In the country, the company imports 30% of the iron utilized in its assembly line. The reason for that is simple: the competitiveness. According to the president of Volkswagen in Brazil, Thomas Schmall, the high price of the iron in Brazilian plants made the importation cheaper than the purchase of the Brazilian product.

To Schmall, the solution is not to import more materials, but encourage the start of new manufacturers coming to Brazil. Nowadays, the company needs to import parts such as headlights, plastics and engine technology, imports that in the end of 2013 were equivalent to an amount of almost 2.5 billion USD.

8) Ford

The American automaker Ford Motor Company has a Brazilian subsidiary named Ford Brazil, that started its operations by importing cars and trucks in kit form from United States to Brazilian lands for assembly.With times passing by, Ford Brazil started its own vehicle production. A good example of it is the new Ford Brazilian factory located in Caçamari, Bahia, where a production line was installed for the national production of Ford Ecosport mini SUV and the Ford Fiesta.

These cars are not only consumed by the Brazilian market, but are also exported to other developing countries as well. Nevertheless, the company still needed to import pieces and components for the car's assembly and that’s why it’s ranked as the 8th largest importer in Brazil in 2013.

9) LG

The South Korean, LG Electronics, is the largest seller of notebooks, TVs, DVD players, Blu-ray, electrical appliances and many other products in Brazil. The company began its activities in the country in 1997 with two industrial complexes: in Manaus and in Taubaté. Even with such a large consumer market in the country, the company still needs to import pieces and components for its product assembly, which makes LG's import a volume 2,286,821,776 USD in 2013 in Brazil.

10) Syngenta

The Swiss company, Syngenta AG, is a large global brand specialized in chemicals, such as market seeds and pesticides. The company is also involved in biotechnology and genomic research. In Brazil, the company is placed as one of the largest foreign companies operating in the country. In 2013, the company imported a volume worth nearly 1.8 billion USD.