Capacity trends illustrate Brazilian manufacturing’s winners and losers

Manufacturing in Brazil has been sluggish, constrained by persistently high borrowing costs and competition from Chinese imports. But performance varies widely among sub-sectors.

We’ve created an index to measure installed capacity, aiming to get a sense of Brazilian businesses that are optimistic about demand and building factories as a result.

Pulp and paper companies (such as Suzano) are adding the most capacity on Chinese demand for packaging. (This sector has also enjoyed an uninterrupted expansion story for decades.)

The food, metals and oil refining sectors (the latter inclusive of increasingly important biofuel production) are also building capacity. Meanwhile, chemical makers are taking capacity offline amid competition from Asia and struggles with US tariffs. Beverage manufacturers are also pulling back.