China-Brazil Trade Hits Record US$143.3 Billion in First Three Quarters: Brazilian Exports to China Reach US$84.7 Billion as Crude Shipments Surge 49%
China-Brazil trade reached a record US$143.3 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up 11.1 percent year on year, according to a quarterly review released this week by the Brazil-China Business Council (CEBC), based on figures from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) of Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services. China accounted for 28.3 percent of Brazil's total foreign trade and remained the country's largest trading partner.
Brazilian exports to China rose 12 percent to US$84.7 billion between January and September, while imports from China grew 9.9 percent to US$58.6 billion. Brazil's bilateral surplus of US$26.1 billion was equivalent to 42 percent of its overall trade surplus with the world in the period. China took 29.7 percent of all Brazilian exports and supplied 26.4 percent of its imports.
Soybeans remained Brazil's top export to China, generating US$30 billion, up 3.6 percent, with China purchasing about 70 percent of Brazil's soybean shipments. Crude oil exports jumped 49 percent to US$21.8 billion, becoming the second-largest Brazilian export to the Chinese market, and China absorbed roughly half of all crude oil Brazil sold abroad. Together, soybeans, crude oil and iron ore accounted for more than 77 percent of Brazilian exports to China.
Beef moved in the opposite direction. After Brazil filled its annual beef quota for China, September shipments fell to US$68.3 million, less than one-fifteenth of the level a year earlier; shipments above the quota face an additional 55 percent duty on top of the standard 12 percent tariff. Poultry and offal shipments, by contrast, rose 113 percent in value and 86 percent in volume. Sorghum exports reached US$170 million, with China taking 95 percent of Brazil's sorghum sales abroad; exports of dried distillers' grains, a corn-ethanol byproduct used in animal feed, reached US$111.3 million, 53 percent of them bound for China. Spodumene, a lithium-bearing mineral, surged 339 percent to US$172.3 million, and copper ore exports grew 7.8 percent.
On the import side, the value of Brazilian purchases of Chinese battery-electric vehicles rose 341 percent, hybrid vehicles 248 percent and plug-in hybrids 89 percent. Brazil bought US$5.9 billion worth of Chinese electric and hybrid vehicles, about 10 percent of its imports from China. Vehicle imports dipped in July and August after Brazil raised the import tariff to 35 percent in July, then recovered to significant levels in September. Herbicides and memory chips were also among the leading imports from China.
For the full year 2025, China-Brazil trade reached a then-record US$171 billion, including US$100 billion in Brazilian exports. If the pace of the first nine months is sustained, both bilateral trade and Brazilian exports to China are on track to surpass those levels in 2026.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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