New exchange at Petrobras, electric car sales soar and what matters in the market

ANDsta is the edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter for this Tuesday (24th). want to receive it from monday to Friday at 7 am In your email? Sign up below.

Musical chairs at Petrobras

The government announced this Monday (23) that it has decided to change the president of Petrobras once again.

José Mauro Coelho, who stayed in office for just over a month, leaves, and Caio Mário Paes de Andrade, secretary of the Ministry of Economy, enters, whose name needs to be confirmed by the company. Minorities say he does not have the required qualifications.

What explains: Coelho went through a frying process right at the beginning of the administration after the state-owned company announced a readjustment of 8.87% of diesel in refineries.

Who is the Substitute? Caio Mário Paes de Andrade commands the Special Secretariat for Debureaucratisation, Management and Digital Government of the Ministry of Economy and is a name linked to Guedes. The folder is responsible for digitizing various government services.

• Andrade, who had already been quoted to occupy the company’s presidency last month, does not have proven experience of at least three years in the oil and gas market, as required by Petrobras’ statute.

• THE Sheet showed in April that the new head of the state-owned company is suspected of using the public machine to search a company’s financial data, which he denies.

Remember: If confirmed in the post, Caio de Andrade will be the fourth president of Petrobras under Jair Bolsonaro. Before him came:

• José Mauro Coelho – stayed in office for 40 days.

• Joaquim Silva and Luna – was fired at the end of March, stayed from April 16, 2021 to April 13, 2022 in the chair.

• Roberto Castello Branco – another name indicated by Guedes, was from January 3, 2019 to April 13, 2021.

New cut in import tax

The government applied in this second new reduction of 10% in the Import Tax rates on most products purchased abroad.

Among the items included in the cut, the ministry cited beans, meat, pasta, cookies, rice and construction materials. About 87% of products that come from abroad will have the reduction.

What explains: this is yet another government initiative to try to take the breath away from inflation. The idea is that the cut in the import tax, which now reaches 20%increase the supply of products in the country and help reduce prices.

• The measure will be valid from June 1st of this year to December 31st, 2023, with an estimated collection waiver of BRL 3.7 billion.

Stay out: textiles, shoes, toys, dairy products and some items from the automotive sector, which will not have the reduced tariff.

Other measures: in addition to the first 10% cut in the import tax announced in November, the government took advantage of the surplus cash and also expanded the reduction in the IPI (Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados) to 35% at the end of last month.

• Shortly after, however, STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes suspended the effect of the extended cut for items produced in the Manaus Free Trade Zone, where the tax exemption already exists.

• The government has also been announcing reductions to specific areas and products. This month, tariffs on steel rebar were cut and rates on some types of meat, wheat, corn and other food items were zeroed.

Didi leaving the US

The Chinese transport giant Didi Global, which owns 99 in Brazil, has notified the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that it will go private in the US.

The decision was taken at a shareholders’ meeting and the shares should stop being traded in June.

why it matters: the case of Didi is emblematic. It involves the offensive of Chinese authorities on technology companies and a geopolitical dispute with the US.

• With the decision to cease trading at Nyse, the company seeks to return to Chinese app stores, reversing an order that came shortly after the IPO (public offering of shares).

Remember: Didi’s offer on the stock exchange was one of the largest made by foreign companies in the US. At the time, the company raised US$ 4.4 billion (R$ 21.4 billion, at the current price) and was valued at $67 billion (BRL 326 billion).

• But soon after came a Chinese order banning the app from registering new users, in what was seen as an attempt by Beijing to prevent new IPOs of local companies in the US.

In numbers: the balance of all this was a great loss for those who entered Didi’s IPO, when the shares were offered by $14.

• Today the $1.44the papers fell more than 90% and the company lost $60 billion (R$ 288 billion, or almost the sum of Itaú and Nubank) in market value.

More about China:

Airbnb is ending its activities in China in the face of lockdowns that the country has been putting in place to fight new outbreaks of Covid, a source close to the company told AFP.

electric car boom

Electric car sales doubled in 2021 from the previous year, and now these vehicles represent 10% of new car transactions worldwide, according to a report by the IEA (International Energy Agency) this Monday.

In numbers: were 6.6 million of units sold –half of them in China– in 2021. This year, another two million were sold in the first quarter, a growth of 75% in 12 months.

What explains: The increase in electric cars in circulation comes on the heels of massive government subsidies for this type of vehicle. Only last year were 30 billion euros (R$ 154 billion) globally.

• US President Joe Biden, for example, announced a plan last year for half of the cars to be sold in the country by 2030 to be carbon-free.

Scratchs: the IEA also warned of the lack of essential minerals for the manufacture of these electric cars, especially lithium and nickel, which are used in batteries.

• According to the agency, although Europe produces a quarter of the electric vehicles on the market, it is in China where 75% of lithium-ion batteries are produced.

• The country is also the main supplier of raw material for Tesla’s batteries, the world’s most valuable automaker.