Sao Paulo, Brazil, 3 April – Chinese exports to Brazil reached US$942 million in March, the highest figure ever reached in a single month of trade between the two countries, according to the Brazilian government.

Last month, Chinese exports to Brazil rose 53.4 percent against March 2006. With this they overtook the previous record from November 2006 (US$854.2 million).

This rise allowed China to once again overtake Argentina as the second-largest supplier of goods to Brazil, behind the United States.

The US sold US$1.451 billion to Brazil in the third month of the year. Argentina sold US$898 million, or US$44 million less than the Asian giant.

Brazilian imports totaled US$9.532 billion in March of this year, with 9.7 percent of this going to China, according to the Brazilian Foreign Trade Ministry.

Taking into account accumulated figures for the first three months of the year, China was Brazil’s second-largest supplier, with US$2.435 billion, still some way away from the US figure of US$4.059 billion.

Brazilian exports to China, which are mainly iron or and soy beans, in March of this year totaled US$809 million, or a rise of 20.1 percent against the same month of 2006, which left China behind the US (US$2.021 billion) and Argentina (US$1.156 billion).

With these figures China posted a trade surplus with Brazil in March of US$133 million. It was the sixth consecutive month in which exports from China to Brazil exceeded imported of Brazilian products. In the first three months of the year China had a trade surplus with Brazil totaling US$522 million.

Bilateral trade between China and Brazil totaled US$4.348 billion in the first three months of the year, or a 37 percent rise against the first quarter of 2006. (macauhub)