China becomes biggest buyer of Brazilian oil

Chinese premier Li Keqiang with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia, Brazil on 19 May 2015 [Xinhua]

Brazil’s oil exports to China increased threefold in the first five months of this year, making Beijing the largest consumer of Brazilian oil in the world.

Brazil exported 5.4 million tons of oil to China from January to May, accounting for 35 per cent of Brazil’s total oil exports in the same period. The amount of oil shipped to China is twice as much as that to the United States.

Earlier this year, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang unveiled $10 billion in Chinese credit to Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.

Petrobras has completed negotiations with the China Development Bank (CDB) for a 10-year bilateral credit line worth $10 billion.

China’s higher demand for oil also helped Brazil achieve record oil exports of 15 million tons from January to May, up 80 per cent from the same period last year.

However, as oil prices have fallen significantly over the past months, the record sales did not generate corresponding high revenues.

With increased oil purchases, China has become the largest buyer of four major Brazilian products. The other three are soybeans, iron ore and cellulose.

China replaced the United States to become Brazil’s largest trade partner in 2009.

Sino-Brazilian trade value amounted to $86.67 billion in 2014.

 

Source: Agencies