Vixtra at Canton Fair 2024

By Fernando Arida Ferreira Velloso

In 1957, the famous Canton Fair was created. Today, it's recognized as the world's largest fair, occurs in two annual editions and in October 2024 had its 136th edition. The fair was created to foster Chinese exports, in a province historically oriented toward the international market, Guangdong (Canton).

Vixtra participated in Phase 1 of Canton Fair 2024, which took place from 10/15 to 10/19. The fair complex has a total area of 1.5 million m² divided into 18 product categories and 50 pavilions.

We made the trip with our partner, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Brazil (CCCB), in a delegation of Brazilian importers and other participating companies from the Brazilian foreign trade ecosystem.

Brazilian importers were in force during the fair, with different levels of import experience. During the fair, we also mapped Chinese exporters from three key sectors for our strategy: tires, chemicals and electronics/electrical products.

Below, we bring the main insights from each sector.

Tires

We collected data from the 10 largest booths in this sector at the fair.

Exporters complained about two specific issues regarding the Brazilian market: anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese tires and costs and requirements of INMETRO certifications.

Of the 10 largest tire exporter booths surveyed, 8 export to Brazil.

In the last 39 months (July 2021 to September 2024), these 8 manufacturers exported USD 46 million to Brazil, mostly passenger car tires (63%) and agricultural tires (35%).

Chemicals

Chemical products from China are vital for Brazilian industry. We visited several chemical sector booths to understand current dynamics and challenges.

Electronics

The electronics sector is one of China's largest export categories. We mapped trends and opportunities for Brazilian importers in this segment.

This article was written by Fernando Velloso, Vixtra's Partnership Manager who lived in China for 3 years, where he completed a Master's in Chinese Economy at Renmin University and worked at InvestSP in Shanghai.