The global financial crisis which started in year 2008, affected many sectors of the global economy. The demand in general has decreased all over the world. This fact led to falling prices and can be easily explained by the simple law of supply and demand. This phenomenon can be clearly observed by the ocean freight rates, which are applied in global foreign trades. Rates for freight routes connecting Asia to other continents fell so far more than 80% since the beginning of the crisis. A proposal of this study was the analysis of the impact of this great reduction in shipping rates, considering at the same time the dollar quotation increase, by the vision of the importing companies located in Brazil. To emphasize this study in a practical way, a research has been made in order to feel the market and this was performed at several companies within the same activity to measure the impact of the crisis and its impact on business at the imported sector. This dissertation also examines factors for choosing ports in order to reduce costs and having greater agility with the release of goods at customs.