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Egypt plans to enter the list of great suppliers for the Brazilian petrochemical and plastics industry. Last year, Brazil's factories spent around US$ 643 million with the import of resins, their main raw material. The Arab country was not included in the list of suppliers.
Egypt sold to Brazil, however, naphtha for use in the petrochemical industry in the production of resins, among them polyethylene, polyurethane and polypropylene.
Still imports dropped when compared to the previous year. Last year, Egypt sold US$ 8.9 million in naphtha for the petrochemical industry to Brazil, US$ 2 million less than in 2003.
The Egyptian diplomatic corps in Brazil are making an effort to change this picture. On Friday, February 11, the Egyptian commercial consul in São Paulo, Mohamad Bakri Agami, and the secretary general of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (CCAB), Michel Alaby, will meet the president of the Brazilian Plastics Industry Association (Abiplast), Merheg Cachum.
They are goint to discuss the possible business opportunities between the Brazilian petrochemical and plastics industry and Egyptian suppliers.
The Egyptian ambassador in Brazilian capital Brasília, Mohamed Abdel Fattah, had already shown, during a visit to the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), at the end of last year, interest in increasing Egyptian petrochem sales to Brazil.
"We are also greatly interested in doing good business with the Arab countries. There is space for the purchase of Egyptian resin if the country offers attractive prices," stated Cachum.
Brazil has been significantly increasing its exports to Egypt, but the same cannot be said about imports. Last year, Brazil had revenues of US$ 623 million with sales to the Arab country and imported just US$ 33.4 million.
"If we open the door to petrochemicals, Egypt may increase its sales to Brazil," stated consul Agami.
The Brazilian industry of transformed plastic products purchases a large part of the resins it uses on the domestic market, but it also imports from Asian and European, countries and from the United States and Mexico.
The sector produces from packages, shoes, household appliances and civil construction equipment, including pipes and connections, to components for televisions, radios, and electronic products.
Last year, the Brazilian plastic products industry had revenues of over US$ 11.5 billion. For this year, according to Cachum, the sector hopes for revenues of between 8% and 10%.
Trade Balance
The Brazilian plastics industry has also been increasing its exports. Last year sector foreign trade revenues reached US$ 792 million, with growth of 24% over 2003. Imports of finished plastic products also rose. They grew from US$ 823.6 million in 2003 to US$ 1 billion last year.
Egypt was included in this balance, but with small participation when compared to the total. In 2004, Brazilian companies exported US$ 840,000 in transformed plastic products and imported US$ 390,000.
Translated by Mark Ament
ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency
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