Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved BRL 280 million (approx. USD 49m) in financing for WEG S.A. to renovate an existing plant and build new capacity for what BNDES describes as Brazil's largest and most modern battery energy-storage-system (BESS) factory, in Itajaí, Santa Catarina. The operation is the first contract under a joint BNDES/Finep public call for strategic-minerals and energy-transition industrial investment ("Mais Inovação"). Announced 4 February 2026; as of the announcement the financing was approved but not yet formally contracted, so this is filed as `stage: proposed` pending contracting.

Brazil's Gecex/Camex approved Resolução Gecex Nº 842 on 23 December 2025 (published in the Diário Oficial da União 24 December 2025, in force 1 January 2026), amending the "Lista de Autopeças Não Produzidas" (Non-Produced Auto Parts List) created by Resolução Gecex Nº 284/2021. The list lets vehicle assemblers import parts with no domestic production source at a reduced ~2% duty instead of Brazil's standard automotive-parts tariff. Resolution 842 removes five tariff ex-numbers (engine components and electrical connectors, NCM 8409.99.99, 8511.40.00, 8536.50.90, 8536.90.40) — reverting those lines to the standard duty on the premise that domestic supply now exists — while adding 38 new ex-numbers: 17 for hybrid/electric-vehicle components (high-voltage NMC/LFP lithium-ion battery packs, oil coolers and collectors, brake and transmission parts for PHEV/HEV applications) and 21 for mining/heavy-equipment parts, both new categories carrying a sunset to 31 December 2027.

Portaria Normativa GM/MME nº 120/2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 14 November 2025 by the Ministério de Minas e Energia, regulates the Política de Debêntures para Projetos de Transformação de Minerais Estratégicos para a Transição Energética. It sets the eligibility criteria, classification methodology and project-approval pipeline (under Decreto 11.964/2024 and Leis 12.431/2011 and 14.801/2024) for tax-exempt incentivised debentures and infrastructure debentures financing the downstream transformation of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths into battery and permanent-magnet inputs (lithium carbonate/hydroxide, cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate, battery-grade copper foil, rare earth oxides/ chlorides/metals/alloys). MME estimates ~R$5.2 bn/year in unlocked private investment (R$3.7 bn transformation + R$1.5 bn mining/ beneficiation, with up to 49% of bond proceeds usable on linked upstream activities).

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 795 on 25 September 2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 26 September 2025, amending the "Lista de Autopeças Não Produzidas" (List of Non-Produced Auto Parts) under the Regime de Autopeças Não Produzidas established by Resolução Gecex nº 284/2021. The resolution removes two tariff-line exemptions (NCM 8501.53.10 Ex 017 and NCM 8507.60.00 Ex 042) and adds 78 new Ex-Tarifário lines covering hybrid/EV electric motors, lithium-ion battery-system components, ARLA32 supply systems, suspension and steering parts, transmission/differential components, electronic control units (ECUs), and body/structural panels — items for which Brazil certifies no equivalent domestic production exists, qualifying them for reduced import-duty treatment. Effective seven days after publication (3 October 2025), the newly added lines carry a defined two-year validity window through 30 September 2027 — the first time GECEX has attached a sunset date to auto-parts Ex-Tarifário grants, a procedural tightening relative to the open-ended grants issued under prior resolutions in this series.

Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Serviço Geológico do Brasil (SGB) released the final report of the Plano Decenal de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (PlanGEO 2026-2035) on 24 September 2025. The plan defines 145 priority research areas selected through public consultation for ten years of focused geological mapping and mineral-resources research, prioritising ten commodities — rare earths, lithium, copper, nickel, manganese, graphite, tin, gold, phosphate, and potassium — covering the battery / magnets demand spectrum plus food-security inputs. The plan is enabled by Portaria Normativa nº 72/GM/MME of 13 March 2024 and operates on a 2026-2035 horizon, with a SGB/MME budget-and-staffing scenario proposing up to a 50% increase in execution team and a 100% expansion in annual financial investment.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES signed a BRL 2.5 billion (~USD 471.6 million) financing contract with Starnav Serviços Marítimos on 22 September 2025 in Itajaí (Santa Catarina), drawing on the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante, FMM). The loan covers just over 88% of the ~BRL 2.9 billion cost of eight hybrid (diesel-electric with battery banks) multipurpose offshore support vessels — four Platform Supply Vessels (PSV) and four Oil Spill Recovery Vessels (OSRV), each 5,500 dwt — to be built at the Detroit Brasil shipyard in Itajaí. The vessels will be chartered to state oil company Petrobras under 12-year contracts to support offshore oil and gas production, and the project is projected to generate 1,400 direct and 6,300 indirect jobs. The announcement was part of a wider BRL 3.3 billion BNDES package for Santa Catarina covering naval, highway and agroindustry financing.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved a BRL 186.1 million (~USD 33.6 million) financing operation for Bram Offshore Transportes Marítimos Ltda, part of the US Edison Chouest Offshore group and the largest offshore-support vessel operator in Brazil. The loan, drawn from the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante, FMM), covers 90% of a BRL 206.8 million project to repair, modernise and convert 15 support vessels — including hybrid-propulsion retrofits (battery installation) on at least one Petrobras-chartered vessel — at the Navship shipyard in Navegantes, Santa Catarina. The same BNDES announcement included a separate BRL 53.2 million FMM loan to Estaleiro Navship Ltda to resume pandemic-halted shipyard works at Porto do Açu (São João da Barra, RJ).

Resolução Gecex/Camex nº 532, deliberated 10 November 2023 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 22-23 November 2023, re-establishes Brazilian import duties on battery-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid (HEV) passenger vehicles under NCM chapter 8703 after a multi-year zero-tariff exemption. Tariffs phase up on a progressive schedule beginning January 2024 and reaching a uniform 35 % by July 2026 (BEV: 10 %→18 %→25 %→35 %; PHEV: 12 %→20 %→28 %→35 %; HEV: 15 %→25 %→30 %→35 %). The resolution also opens transitional tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) — roughly USD 660 million of EV/hybrid imports plus USD 39 million of electric trucks may enter at zero duty across the 2024-2026 phase-in window — and is operationalised by Portaria SECEX nº 291/2023, which sets the quota allocation rules. The measure is the first re-tariffing of Brazil's auto sector against Chinese EV/hybrid exports since the Inovar-Auto regime ended in 2017.