The year of 2005 was promising for international trade in the north of Brazil. Together, the states of Roraima, Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia and Tocantins had the greatest increase in exports amongst the Brazilian regions last year.
International sales of the five states increased by 41.1%, quite above the national average of 23.5%. The Northern region had revenues of US$ 7.4 billion in 2005 with the foreign market against US$ 5.2 billion in 2004.
The state of Amazonas was the one in the region that had the best performance in the international market last year. Sales from Amazonas increased by 86% in 2005, according to information from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Amazonas had a turnover of about US$ 2 billion with exports last year against US$ 1.15 billion in the previous year. Revenues increased in about US$ 925 million.
The state hosts the Manaus Free Zone, in which companies receive state and federal fiscal incentives to export. According to the director in the Department of Industrial and Commercial Policies at the Planning and Economic Development Secretariat of the state of Amazonas, Gilmar Freitas, 162 new companies were installed in the hub in 2005.
The hub currently hosts more than 550 companies. According to Freitas, the components’ factories are also receiving incentives to install themselves in the Free Zone, which gave greater support to the final goods manufacturers.
Up to the month of November, the products that had greater highlight in exports from Amazonas were mobile phones, motorcycles, preparations for the elaboration of beverages and television sets.
Mobile phone external sales increased by 312% between November and January 2005 against the same period in 2004, according to information from the local government. The product was responsible for 55.3% of exports from the Amazonas industry. "Our production costs are better than in other countries where the cell phone companies are based or have units," said Freitas.
Amapá
The state of Amapá also registered increase in exports well above national average last year. The state’s external sales increased by 63.9% in 2005 if compared to the previous year. The volumes traded however, are still small. Amapá went from only US$ 46.8 million in 2004 to US$ 76.8 million last year.
According to the head of the Foreign Trade Division at the Industry, Trade and Mining Secretariat, Raimundo Nonato, the state exported last year products such as splinters, that serve as raw materials for cellulose, chromite, iron ore, manganese and biomass, the external part, the "peel" of the tree, which is left over after the extraction of the splinters, and may be used for the generation of energy.
The exports of biomass and iron ore are a new thing for Amapá. Last year, a new company, Sólida Mineração, was installed in the state and is exporting iron ore. The participation of the Northern region of Brazil in global country exports is 6.3%. In 2004 it was of 5.5%.
Regions
Exports from the Midwestern region of Brazil increased by 38.9% last year reaching US$ 7.1 billion. The Southeast, in which the state of São Paulo is located, had sales that were 25.8% greater with US$ 65.2 billion.
The region answers to over half the volume traded abroad by Brazil. External sales by the Northeast advanced 30.8%, with 10.5 billion and in the South by 8%, with 26 billion. Brazil had total revenues of US$ 118.3 billion in international trade in 2005.
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