Brazil’s Competitiveness in Exportation of Forest Products From 2008 to 2018

Abstract

This article aims to analyze Brazil’s global competitiveness in the exportation of forest products from 2008 to 2018. Data on importation and exportation were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO, while Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Contribution to Trade Balance (CTB), and Terms of Trade (TOT) were the indicators used to measure international trade. The main results show that Brazil has a positive trade balance for forest products, mainly for wood pulp exports. Brazil’s RCA for forest products was classified as moderate to strong. As for the forest product groups, it was strong for wood pulp, weak to moderate for wood panels, weak for paper and paperboard, weak to nonexpressive for timber, and non-expressive for industrial roundwood and wood fuel. Based on Brazil’s CTB, all the forest product groups have a comparative advantage, except wood fuel. Brazil’s TOT was strong for wood panels, timber, industrial roundwood, wood pulp, in order from most to least expressive. In conclusion, Brazilian exports have comparative advantages and are competitive in the international market.

A Comparison of the International Competitiveness of Forest Products in Top Exporting Countries Using the Deviation Maximization Method with Increasing Uncertainty in Trading

“…In 2021, the five countries with the highest forest area were, in order, Russia, Brazil, Canada, the United States and China (source: FAO). Russia had a higher index of international competitiveness in roundwood and sawn wood, the United States had a higher index in roundwood, wood chips, sawn wood and wood pulp and Canada had a higher index in sawn wood and wood pulp, which is consistent with the findings of Rossato (2018) [15], Gordeev (2020) [36] and Santos (2022) [37]. However, the situation was different in Brazil and China.…”

“…However, the situation was different in Brazil and China. Brazil is moving forward with the transformation of its forest industry development, hoping to translate the advantages of its forest resources into advantages of forest products with high added value [37]. As a result, Brazil's international competitiveness in logs and chips is poor, but its international competitiveness in wood pulp is outstanding.…”

“…At present, some scholars have analyzed the international competitiveness of forest products and obtained numerous valuable results, in which the United States, Russia, China, Brazil, Germany and other major exporters of forest products in the world are involved [15,[36][37][38]40]. Rossato (2018) found that Finland, Brazil, Canada, Sweden and the United States have a comparative advantage in the market for pulp exports, but not China [15].…”

“…To address the above issues, we applied market share, revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) [15], relative trade advantage (RTA) [1] and trade balance index (CTB) [37] to measure the international competitiveness of forest products in 10 countries. Due to space limitations, Table 11 lists the results and rankings of the corresponding indicators for 2021 wood-based paper.…”

Competitiveness Analysis In the Pulp Sector: The Case of Brazil in the 2008-2017 Period

“…Por estar intimamente relacionado ao desenvolvimento social, ambiental e económico do país, o setor também investe na conversão de subprodutos e resíduos de processos industriais em produtos inovadores e renováveis que contribuem para o fortalecimento da economia de baixo carbono (Ibá 2017). O crescimento e a importância das exportações brasileiras de celulose estão associados a fatores de competitividade interna que incluem elevada produtividade e condições climáticas favoráveis que permitem ciclos de crescimento de alta qualidade combinados com baixos custos de produção, mas também a fatores externos que incluem a expansão e liberalização do comércio global e o crescimento da riqueza dos mercados consumidores de celulose (Santos et al 2022;Matos et al 2021;). Apesar deste dinamismo, o setor não deixa de enfrentar desafios e barreiras, quer ao nível do conhecimento do mercado, ao nível da gestão, ao nível da cadeia de suprimentos e ao nível do mercado de consumo de papel devido à digitalização (Santos et al 2022;Matos et al 2021) Neste enquadramento, considerando o potencial e a importância económica deste setor, mas também a concorrência internacional e os desafios enfrentados, este estudo justifica-se, pois, pretende analisar a competitividade e o desempenho das exportações brasileiras de celulose, no comércio internacional frente às exportações mundiais, para o período 2007 a 2018.…”