The participation of imported products in Brazil’s consumption rose to 21.8 percent in the second quarter of the year. Figures were released by the National Industry Confederation (CNI). They indicate that the share of foreign products grew 1.2 percentage points compared to the same period in 2013. It is the most significant expansion since 2007.
Renato Fonseca, head of CNI’s Unit for Research and Competitiveness, said that the imports remain under the spotlight in the Brazilian market. The foreign market, however, is not being prioritized by Brazilian companies.
In his view, statistics confirm the lack of competitiveness of the national industry, which, besides the difficulty of exporting its industrialized products, has to face competition from foreign goods in its domestic market.
Shipbuilding
The yearly growth rate of approximately 19.5 percent since 2000 in Brazil’s shipbuilding industry, associated with investments amounting to $150 billion, has consolidated the sector in Brazil, Carlos Campos Neto, coordinator of the Applied Economic Research Institute (“IPEA”), told Agência Brasil.
IPEA’s study was based on contracts, both signed and expected, which aim to foster the development of pre-salt oil and deepwater exploration in the Northeast. It was presented at the Marintec South America – 11th Navalshore, in Rio de Janeiro, a gathering regarded as the main of its kind for Latin America’s shipbuilding and offshore industry. The event brings together leaders from over 17 countries, 380 brands and 12 international pavilions.
According to Campos Neto, the survey shows that “there’s enough demand for the naval industry for the next 25 years.” And this demand stands at about US$ 97 million.
Carlos Campos Neto further highlighted the importance of Petrobras’s investments in the industry’s upturn: “What made it possible for the naval industry to rise again, and what will keep it steady for the next 25 years, is the offshore oil and gas industry, most of all.”
The study reveals that Brazil’s shipbuilding industry reached its high point in the 1970’s, faced a decline in the 80’s, and its near-extinction in the next decade.
In the economist’s view, however, the Brazilian shipbuilding industry will not prove competitive in all of its sectors. In the construction of oil tankers, for instance, Brazil will not be powerful enough to compete, in terms of prices and costs, with China or Korea.
On the other hand, Brazil has showed a good performance in the production of support vessels, offshore oil rigs and drill ships. “Our market, where Brazil has built up its structure and development, should focus on these three sectors, which have a lot of embedded technology. This is very good for us.”
