Foreign Trade

In 2011, the BNDES’ total disbursements, through the financing lines for export, was R$ 11.4 billion, 63% of which is related to the capital goods segment.

The BNDES’ performance in support for Brazilian exports in 2011 reaffirmed important guidelines established in 2010, especially that which states that the financing goods and service sales abroad must be conducted in an agile and competitive manner. In this sense, the partner bank network abroad was expanded by means of the BNDES Automatic Exim product, which consists of opening up lines of credit to banks abroad to grant financing to importers of Brazilian goods and services. Currently, some 11 banks abroad are licensed to transfer the BNDES’ resources in a total amount of US$ 625 million. They have already received support in over 30 capital goods export operations to six Latin American countries.

Brazilian companies participating in infrastructure projects in Latin America and Africa continued to rely on the BNDES’ support, which has been a determining in several situations, as it provides a competitive edge when assessing trade proposals in international bids.

The BNDES’ export financing lines have favored market diversification and the scale expansion of production, making support for exports more effective.

In 2011, a new line of credit was approved for the government of Angola, in the amount of US$ 1 billion, to finance Brazilian exports of goods and services earmarked for the implementation of highway and urban infrastructure projects, sanitation, water supply, generation and distribution of electric power, professional training centers, equipment for the fire department and defense departments as well as the construction of airports.

Also worthy of mention are the financing operations for exports of 14 Embraer aircraft, models 170, 175, 190 or 195 (E-Jets) to the Aldus Aviation Limited aircraft lease company, located in Ireland. This is the BNDES’ first operation to a leasing company that is not backed by the lessor’s credit risk, but rather by the risk of the aircraft lessor’s airlines. The flexibility provided by this operation, both by allowing a wide range of lessor airlines and by including any E-Jet family aircraft, is considered strategic by the Brazilian exporter. Currently, approximately 33% of the aircraft in the world belong to leasing companies, a proportion that has been growing rapidly over the last few years.

Another relevant operation in 2011 was financing for the commercialization of Scania buses to make up the Bogota Integrated Public Transport System, called the Trans-millennium System. This system is one of the most important examples of Rapid Bus Transit (RTB) in the world, built and managed by the City Council of Bogota, in Colombia, since December of 2000. This implementation means that users’ travel time was reduced by 32%, and emissions of pollutants were reduced by 40%. In 2010, the City Council began expanding the system to benefit the entire city of Bogota. In this second phase, Brazil will provides 159  bus chassis and 295 complete buses, enabling Brazilian chassis and body manufacturers to consolidate their position in the South American market.