What this means for businesses from BRICS countries
Translated with AI assistance
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been re-elected as President of Brazil. In the second round on October 25, he received 51.79% of the vote compared to 48.21% for Flávio Bolsonaro, according to official data from Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court.
For foreign businesses, the outcome primarily signifies continuity in the foreign economic policy of Latin America’s largest economy. Under Lula, Brazil consistently developed trade and investment ties within BRICS: in 2024, the country’s trade turnover with the bloc’s members reached $210 billion – 35% of Brazil’s total foreign trade – while BRICS countries’ investments in the Brazilian economy were estimated at approximately $51 billion.
China remains the largest market for Brazilian exports. In the first half of 2026, shipments from Brazil to the PRC reached $58.3 billion, increasing by 21.9% year-on-year. The main exports are iron ore, oil, soybeans, and meat.
At the same time, Chinese capital is increasingly moving beyond traditional energy and infrastructure projects. As early as 2024, according to Reuters, direct Chinese investment in Brazil doubled to $4.2 billion, making the country the third-largest recipient of Chinese investment in the world.
Artificial intelligence and computing infrastructure are becoming a separate focus area. In 2026, Brazil announced the launch of projects worth approximately R$2.3 billion ($444 million), including supercomputing infrastructure in Rio de Janeiro valued at around R$1.3 billion with the participation of Huawei and iFlytek.
Thus, Lula’s new term preserves for Chinese businesses the model that has already taken shape: Brazil simultaneously serves as a major sales market, a platform for localizing production, and a market for technological investments.
Economic ties with India are also expanding. In the first seven months of 2026, trade between the two countries reached $10.1 billion, an increase of 32.9% year-on-year. Brazil and India are discussing the expansion of India’s preferential trade agreement with Mercosur, market access, and new investment projects.
According to Reuters, bilateral trade in 2025 stood at around $15 billion, and the countries have set a goal of increasing it to $20 billion by 2030. For Indian companies, the main areas of focus are energy, mining, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, and industrial manufacturing.
For Russian business, Lula’s new term primarily means preserving economic ties in sectors where the two countries are already substantially dependent on each other.
The most notable example is mineral fertilizers. In 2025, Russia accounted for 25.9% of Brazil’s total fertilizer imports, remaining the country’s largest supplier.
For Russian manufacturers, Brazil is, in turn, one of the key markets. As BRICS Business Magazine previously reported, Brazil remains PhosAgro’s largest export market among the BRICS countries: in 2024, the company delivered a record 2.3 million tons of fertilizers there, and in the first half of 2025 – another approximately 800,000 tons. In total, PhosAgro’s exports to BRICS countries reached 4 million tons in 2024, which at that time accounted for almost half of the company’s overseas shipments.
Another area is nuclear technology. Russia and Brazil have been cooperating in this field for several decades. In an interview with BRICS Business Magazine, Ivan Dybov, Director of Rosatom’s Regional Office in Latin America, noted that Russia, in particular, supplies 30% of Brazil’s needs for a number of essential medical isotopes. These include molybdenum-99, iodine-131, lutetium-177, and other products. Based on them, diagnostic examinations and therapy courses are conducted weekly throughout the country.
Ahead of the second round, investors and analysts assumed that a victory for Flavio Bolsonaro would lead to a significant rapprochement between Brazil and the United States.
Lula’s victory preserves a different foreign economic vector. His policy is built on multilateral cooperation and closer ties with the countries of the Global South, including BRICS. The president himself has repeatedly called on the bloc’s members to expand trade and financial integration.
For businesses, this makes the development trajectory quite clear: over the next four years, BRICS will likely retain its status for Brazil as one of its key foreign economic partnerships—serving as a platform for trade, investment, industrial cooperation, and the development of its own financial mechanisms.
