Brazilian pulp giant Suzano sees no short-term impact from US tariff announcement

By Marcela Ayres

BRASILIA, July 15 (Reuters) - Pulp maker Suzano SUZB3.SA has not seen any impact yet from the U.S. government's announcement that it would impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods, but is working on hedging strategies, an executive said on Tuesday.

Brazil accounts for roughly 83% of the total hardwood pulp the United States imports in a given year, according to Suzano, one of the world's largest pulp producers.

"No impact in the short term," Suzano's managing director for the Americas, Guilherme Miranda, told an event hosted by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce when asked if clients had started pulling back or canceling orders.

Miranda added that Suzano had nonetheless been working on building up inventory in the U.S. as a hedging strategy.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that he planned to impose 50% tariffs on all products from Brazil starting August 1.

Analysts at Citi noted that Suzano, with 15% of its revenues in the U.S., could face difficulties in the short term, but benefits from having low costs, flexibility to reallocate volumes and global scale.

Miranda stressed that Suzano could find ways to sell its products to other markets, but that the best possible outcome would be to maintain its long-standing relationship with North American clients.

"We have high trust that our government will be engaged in finding a negotiated outcome for tariffs," the executive said.

He added that U.S. consumers would ultimately bear the additional costs stemming from tariffs. "Pulp is a commodity, we don't have that margin to subsidize the product," Miranda said.

Sao Paulo-traded shares of Suzano were up 0.5% on Tuesday, outperforming benchmark stock index Bovespa .BVSP, which slipped 0.5%.