Brazil’s government hopes that land reform in the Amazon will slow deforestation. Greens doubt it.
Read the full story in The Economist
Archive for the ‘Biofuels’ Category
The future of the Amazon
In Agriculture, Biofuels, Brazil, Infrastructure, Tourism on June 26, 2009 at 7:38 amCape Verde news update, May 22nd
In Banking, Biofuels, Brazil, Cape Verde, Economy, Energy, Investments, Security, Stock exchange, Tourism, Travel on May 22, 2009 at 5:54 pmBIOFUELS & ENERGY
The Ministry of the Environment, Rural Development and Marine Resources signed a memorandumwith Macau based company Geocapital for the creation of an international scientific investigation and technological development center dedicated to bio-fuels (A Semana).
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is “very interested” in taking part in the renewable energies project Cape Verde is carrying out, the bank’s vice president, Plutharcos Sakellaris said (Macauhub).
CABO VERDE INVESTIMENTOS
Rui Cardoso Santos, up to the present the coordinator of the Privatization Office, is the new president of investment and tourism promotion agency Cabo Verde Investimentos. The agency’s new administrative council also includes Carlos Rocha, a Bank of Cape Verde employee, and the young Eileen Barbosa, who has left Cabo Verde Development to embrace this new and challenging function (A Semana).
ECONOMY
The governor of Cape Verde’s central bank admitted today that the country’s economy had cooled somewhat, but even so predicted that growth for 2009 would stand at approximately 5%. Inflation, which has slowed considerably in recent months, is expected to be below 2% (A Semana).
STOCK EXCHANGE
Prime Minister José Maria Neves presided over the launch of the Public Sale Offer of Cape Verde Stock Exchange-listed bonds for Cabo Verde Fast Ferry, a sea transportation company owned by Cape Verdean businessmen residing in the United States and in Cape Verde itself. The 1.5 billion-escudo Public Sale Offer is aimed at raising capital for the purchase of two high-speed passenger transportation vessels to operate in Cape Verde’s Leeward Islands (Santiago, Fogo, Brava and Maio) (A Semana).
INFRASTRUCTURE
The road connecting the villages of Calhau and Norte de Baía on the island of São Vicente will be opened on July 4, according to the director of the Department of Infrastructures, Carlos Dias. Dias expressed satisfaction with the quality of the work carried out so far by construction company Armando Cunha (A Semana).
SECURITY
In the struggle against drugs related crime, the National Police scored several small victories with the arrest of several persons, including a 25-year-old São Vicente native with five capsules containing 346.872 grams of cocaine in her digestive system. The woman had disembarked from a flight arriving from Fortaleza, Brazil (A Semana).
Angola news update, May 9th
In Agriculture, Angola, Biofuels, Economy, Energy, Hotels, Investments, Mining on May 9, 2009 at 10:03 amDIAMONDS
Angola’s diamond sector is slowly recovering but gem prices still need to rise by around 15% this year to enable companies reinvest in it (Mail & Guardian)
CATTLE RANCHING & FOOD
The 26th edition of Luanda International Fair (Filda) is to take place from July 14-19, with a focus on sustainable development cattle breeding (Angop).
Angola might achieve food self-sufficiency in 2012 with the implementation of the projects under the Agro-farming and forest Extension and Development Programme that aim to distribute agricultural tools and facilitate credit to farmers (ANGOP).
INVESTMENT
Private investment in Angola reached about USD 700 million during the first quarter of 2009 (ANGOP)
HOTELS
Angolan CHICOIL Business Group has been investing USD 200 million from 2008 for the construction of five hotels in the provinces of Huíla, Namibe, Benguela and Lunda Sul, part of a programme to expand the network of hotels in the country (ANGOP).
ENERGY
The Angolan minister of Energy, Manuela Vieira Lopes, and the deputy chairperson of the Norwegian firm Hydro Aluminium, Arvid Moss, signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of the electro-intensive industry in the country (ANGOP).
BIOFUELS
The Portuguese Visabeira group is preparing projects in the biofuel sector for Angola, which are due to be implemented in 2010 (Macauhub).
Brazil fields motorcycle running on alcohol
In Biofuels, Brazil, Energy on May 1, 2009 at 8:09 pmA motorcycle that can run solely on sugar cane ethanol, gasoline or a mixture of both has gone on sale in Brazil, where biofuel cars already dominate the roads, burning cheaper home-grown energy.
Read the full story at Reuters
Brazil news update, April 25th
In Agriculture, Banking, Biofuels, Brazil, Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade, Investments, Mining, Oil, Ports on April 25, 2009 at 11:33 amBANKING & FINANCE
Bank lending in Brazil rebounded in March, with new loans increasing for the first time in three months, signalling a thaw in credit markets in the Latin American nation (Reuters).
Banco do Brasil replaced several top executives on Thursday as newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Aldemir Bendine took the helm of the federally controlled lender (Reuters).
UBS AG agreed to sell its Brazilian business back to its original owners for about $2.5 billion, boosting its capital despite a small loss, and potentially reducing the need for a capital hike (Reuters).
Brazil’s banking spreads, or the difference between the rate that banks lend funds and the country’s benchmark borrowing cost, will only decline once its causes are attacked, the head of the Brazilian banks federation said (Reuters).
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Brazilian companies are better positioned to weather the global downturn than their Mexican counterparts, which are struggling amid a tumbling peso and the U.S. recession, ING Bank analysts said (Reuters).
Brazil cut taxes on Friday on a range of domestic appliances and construction materials for a three-month period, the government’s latest attempt to lift Latin America’s biggest economy out of a slump (Reuters).
MINING
Brazil’s mining giant Vale said on Monday that it is selling iron ore at a 20 percent discount to 2008 benchmark prices, until new annually revised term contract price agreements were set (Reuters).
OIL
Brazil’s Petrobras is seeking around 240 offshore oil development vessels in the next five to six years, its chief financial officer said, deals that could bring new life to the stagnant global shipbuilding sector (Reuters).
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, found more evidence of oil in an onshore block in the country’s Espirito Santo Basin, the Brazilian petroleum regulator said (Reuters).
TELECOM
TIM Participacoes plans to buy Brazilian long-distance operator Intelig in an all-stock deal worth $300 million, the Brazilian mobile phone operator said (Reuters).
BIOFUELS
The big four auto makers in Brazil joined forces with the Sugar Cane Industry Association (Unica) on Wednesday in a campaign aimed at expanding the use of cane-based ethanol in flex-fuel vehicles (Reuters).
Brazilian sugar and ethanol producers will open fewer mills next year and probably won’t expand sugar-cane planting as they struggle with debt amid a global credit crisis, a government official said (Bloomberg).
MEAT
Shares of Brazilian meat industry companies soared on Thursday after the government’s National Monetary Council approved a 10 billion reais ($4.6 billion) credit line for local meat processing companies (Reuters).
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
Rio de Janeiro’s state governor will meet with Baosteel. and offer land and partnership opportunities in a bid to persuade China’s biggest steelmaker to reverse its decision to leave Brazil (Bloomberg).
Brazil news update, April 10th
In Banking, Biofuels, Brazil, Economy, Mining, Oil, Retail on April 10, 2009 at 2:34 pmECONOMY
Four months of rising car sales in Brazil suggest that Latin America’s biggest auto industry could already be over the worst of the global crisis, even as makers elsewhere face plunging demand (Reuters).
BANKING & FINANCE
Brazil’s government named Aldemir Bendine as chief executive of federally owned Banco do Brasil, seeking to boost lending in the country’s financial system and lower borrowing costs to stoke the economy (Reuters).
Private equity investors expect to invest more money in emerging markets in the next five years with China and Brazil topping the list of favoured destinations, according to an industry survey released on Monday (Reuters).
OIL & GAS
Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras has discovered signs of oil in the C-M-401 block in the Campos Basin, the company told Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency on Monday (Reuters).
Petrobras said on Wednesday a consortium formed by the company and BG Group found evidences of oil in the subsalt layer in Santos basin (Reuters).
Petrobras also said on Wednesday it plans to launch in May a bidding for 28 drilling units, most of them to operate in subsalt oil reserves (Reuters).
Petrobras said on Monday that natural gas reservoirs found in January by a consortium with Spain’s Repsol, are commercially viable (Reuters).
MINING
Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, may boost shipments of the raw material after the second quarter as stockpiles fall and demand from Chinese builders increases, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said (Bloomberg).
MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA, the iron-ore mining company which is seeking to sell all or part of its assets or voting shares by the end of this year, may draw interest from BHP Billiton Ltd. or Chinese steelmakers, according to Itau Corretora (Bloomberg).
ETHANOL
Santelisa Vale, one of Brazil’s largest sugar and ethanol producer, agreed to sell a 40 percent stake for an undisclosed sum to Swiss-based trader Louis Dreyfus Commodities, a source with direct knowledge of the transaction said on Tuesday (Reuters).
Cosan, the world’s biggest sugar-cane processor, rose to a six-month high in Sao Paulo on a media report it’s seeking a partnership with Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petrobras (Bloomberg).
South Africa news update, April 3rd
In Banking, Biofuels, Investments, South Africa, Telecom on April 2, 2009 at 10:02 pmFINANCE
Africa’s biggest bank by assets, Standard Bank Group, will get a $400 million credit line from the World Bank’s private sector branch to fund trade in sub-Saharan Africa, it said on Thursday (Reuters).
South African insurer Liberty Group LGLJ.J said on Tuesday it would acquire a 35 percent equity stake in Nigerian health insurance firm Total Health Trust (Reuters).
TELECOM
MTN, Africa’s biggest mobile company by subscribers, is looking to buy Kenya’s fourth mobile phone provider Econet Wireless Kenya for $450 million, Kenya’s Standard newspaper said on Tuesday (Reuters). But Econet Wireless Kenya said the same day it had no intention of selling out to South Africa’s MTN and would continue to build its customer base (Reuters).
BIOFUELS
PetroSA’s plan to build an oil refinery on South Africa’s eastern coast will “squash” local development of biofuels, said Kevin Baart, senior manager at Deloitte (Bloomberg).
Surinam news update, March 29th
In Banking, Biofuels, Books, Economy, Oil, Surinam, Tourism on March 29, 2009 at 1:42 pmTOURISM
Surinam is to get a national website dedicated to tourism promotion. The project will be funded by the EU.
BANKING
De Surinaamsche Bank N.V. (DSB) closed the year 2008 with a net profit of SRD 22,7 million.
BIOFUELS
Staatsolie, Surinam’s staterun oil company, is working on a future project to develop production of biofuels, together with Brazilian partners, Minister for Natural Resources Gregory Rusland announced.
ECONOMY
Surinam is in a much better position to survive negative effects of the global recession. A good position of the SRD, a comfortable monetary reserve and the prudent monetary policies of the last years are some of the reasons of the country’s “pole position“. This was the message of two IMF-economists, Gamal El Masri and Bernhard Fritz-Krockowoek, while presenting their publication ‘Suriname Toward Stability and Growth’.
(De Ware Tijd)
Cape Verde news update, March 29th
In Airports, Banking, Biofuels, Cape Verde, Investments, Ports, Real estate, Security, Tourism, Travel on March 29, 2009 at 1:41 pmSECURITY
In 2008, Cape Verde’s Judiciary Police seized 36% more drugs that the year before, mostly cocaine and cannabis. The information comes from Judiciary Police director Óscar Tavares and was announced during last week’s Coordination and Strategic Planning meeting, which took place in Praia (A Semana).
AIR TRAVEL
São Pedro Airport on the island of São Vicente will close between 8:30 am and 6:30 pm beginning today, March 25, for construction work in the airport’s maneuvering zone. Between today and May 9, all flights to and from the island will take place at night (A Semana).
BIOFUELS
Geocapital is negotiating the set up of a biofuel research and development centre in Cape Verde, the Macau-based holding company’s chairman and shareholder, Jorge Ferro Ribeiro said Thursday (Macauhub).
PORTS & LOGISTICS
The Cape Verdean government is “very soon” due to launch the public tender to award the contract for construction work to expand and modernise the Port Novo dock, a source from national ports management company, Enapor told Cape Verdean news agency Inforpress (Macauhub).
REAL ESTATE
uthorities linked to the tourist real estate sector in Cape Verde called Friday for an investment fund of 100 million Euros to be set up and listed on the local stock exchange, to support companies in difficulty (Macauhub).
South Africa to export biodiesel to Germany
In Biofuels, South Africa on March 20, 2009 at 7:35 pmSouth Africa has secured a long term contract to export between 70-90 percent of the output from a planned 400,000 ton a year biodiesel plant to Germany, the Business Day newspaper reported on Thursday.
Read the news feature at Reuters
Cape Verde news update, March 20th
In Biofuels, Cape Verde, Politics, Security on March 20, 2009 at 7:29 pmThe protocol on renewable energies signed Saturday in Mindelo is the best reflection so far of the new direction being taken in the cooperation program between Cape Verde and Portugal, based on the exchange of knowledge, investments in new technology, research and a great deal of audacity. This was the message the prime ministers of the two countries, José Maria Neves and José Sócrates, stressed during their joint lecture on sustainable energy at the University of Cape Verde campus in the Mindelo neighborhood of Ribeira de Julião Saturday (A Semana).
The main highlights of Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates’ three-day official visit to Cape Verde, along with a 120-member delegation that included government ministers, business leaders and journalists are: Biennial Summits between both countries, a Euro 200 million credit line,a mini-computer project for schools, and an online library for Uni-CV University, among other things (A Semana).
Judiciary Police have arrested a couple – a 38-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman – in possession of enough cocaine for more than 200 individual doses in the town of Santa Maria, on the island of Sal. Both are natives of the island of Santiago (A Semana).
Magistrate António Pedro Borges, the president of the Praia Attorney General’s office, was shot Tuesday as he attempted to help a woman who was being mugged by two young men. During the chase that ensued, one of the muggers pulled out a 6.35 mm revolver and shot Borges in the leg. In his haste, the mugger also ended up shooting himself in the knee. Both of the assailants have been arrested by the National Police (A Semana).
The National Police reports that it has dismantled several groups of criminals that have been operating in Praia. One of these groups is believed to be responsible for various robberies committed at a number of commercial firms in the capital city. Another group made up of three employees of bottled water and soft-drink company Trindade has been arrested for stealing merchandise from the company’s factory (A Semana).
National Police officers on the island of Boa Vista have arrested two young men suspected of having violently attacked and robbed a German couple last week (A Semana).
Brazil news update, March 13th
In Agriculture, Banking, Biofuels, Brazil, Economy, Energy, Mining, Oil, Politics, Security on March 13, 2009 at 10:25 pmECONOMY
Brazil’s economy had its worst showing in more than a decade in the last quarter of 2008, shrinking a larger-than-expected 3.6 percent from the previous quarter as the global financial crisis took a heavy toll on Latin America’s biggest country (Reuters).
The Brazilian economy is expected to see close to zero growth in 2009, as a result of a sudden halt in economic activity, according to a projection from Brazil’s National Confederation for Industry (CNI) (Macauhub).
BANKING & FINANCE
Santander, Spain’s biggest bank, bought out Tokio Marine Holdings’ stake in a jointly owned Brazilian insurance group for 678 million reais ($284.9 million), aiming to strengthen its position in Brazil (Reuters).
BUSINESS
For-profit education company DeVry Inc said it agreed to acquire a majority stake in Brazil’s privately held Fanor, a post-secondary education provider, to boost its international presence (Reuters).
Automobile sales in Brazil rose for a third straight month in February from January, helped by government tax breaks, but compared to a year ago sales fell and exports halved as the global financial crisis took a toll (Reuters).
Lojas Americanas SA, Brazil’s biggest discount retailer, rallied to the highest level in more than a month after reporting a 40.7 percent rise in fourth- quarter profit (Bloomberg).
Aracruz Celulose SA common shares rose the most in six weeks after Votorantim Clelusoe e Papel SA said it will purchase a 28 percent stake and offer to buy out minority investors of the world’s biggest eucalyptus-pulp maker (Bloomberg).
Embraer is likely to take at least two years to recover from a 30 percent reduction in its industrial activity, O Estado de Sao Paulo reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Frederico Curado (Bloomberg).
COFFEE
Brazil, the world’s biggest coffee producer, may buy as many as 3 million bags of the beans at above-market prices to boost stockpiles, reducing supplies in a year where production may slump as much as 20 percent (Bloomberg).
OIL
Brazilian state oil company Petrobras said on Friday fourth-quarter net profit jumped sharply from a year ago due to higher fuel prices, a stronger dollar and greater output, all of which helped push annual profit to a record (Reuters).
Galp Energia SA, Portugal’s biggest oil company, plans to invest 5.2 billion euros ($6.5 billion) through 2013 as it develops projects including Tupi, the biggest oil discovery in the Americas in three decades (Bloomberg).
Japan’s Marubeni industrial group is close to bankrolling all of a $20 billion premium refinery in partnership with Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras, a Brazilian financial daily said on Thursday (Reuters).
Use of smaller platforms to pump subsalt oil from deep under the ocean bed would make it cheaper to extract and profitable at an oil price of $40 per barrel, Petrobras said on Monday (Reuters).
Petrobras Thursday launched production on the platform ship, Cidade de Niterói, in the Marlim Leste field, in the Campos basin, the company said in a statement (Macauhub).
Petrobras will extract its first crude oil on May 1 from the potentially huge find it made below the salt layer of the Santos basin in late 2007, the country’s president said on Friday (Reuters).
EXXON MObile Corp.’s oil discovery off the coast of Brazil may hold enough crude to rival the nearby Tupi prospect as the Western Hemisphere’s largest find in three decades (Bloomberg).
Petrobras also discovered traces of natural gas in a well in Brazil’s Santos basin (Bloomberg).
ETHANOL
The Brazilian subsidiary of U.S. grain processor Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Tuesday it is about to close a deal to lease 17 silos of an inoperative grain cooperative in Mato Grosso do Sul (Reuters).
Cosan Industria e Comercio, the world’s biggest sugar-cane processor, posted a third-quarter profit, after a year-earlier loss, helped by the acquisition of Exxon Mobil Corp. service stations in Brazil (Bloomberg).
The chairman of Petrobras Biocombustível, Alan Kardec, said Wednesday in Brasilia that studies on the development of a project together with Portugal’s Galp Energia would go ahead, despite the current financial crisis (Macauhub).
MINING
Brazilian mining giant Vale (formerly Companhia do Vale do Rio Doce – CVRD), is expected to beat its quarterly record for deliveries of iron ore to China in the first quarter of 2009, with China accounting for 30 million tonnes of total iron ore exports of 50 million tonnes, one of the group’s executives said Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro (Macauhub).
SECURITY
Brazil and Colombia have agreed to develop military equipment together, conduct joint maneuvers in the jungle and monitor airspace used by drug smugglers, officials from both nations said on Thursday (Reuters).
POLITICS
Brazil is preparing to oust scores of foreign aid groups it considers a threat to national security and will restrict foreign ownership in the Amazon, a senior government official told Reuters.
The World Bank on Thursday approved a $1.3 billion loan to help Brazil’s environmental management and climate change efforts (Reuters).
Brazil’s state nuclear energy company says it has received environmental approval to resume construction of the country’s third nuclear power plant (IHT).
Surinam news update, Feb. 12
In Biofuels, Security, Surinam, Telecom on February 12, 2009 at 6:21 pmTELECOMS
Telesur, Surinam’s telecom company announced that most of the country will soon be able to use the wireless broadband internet connection services the company is offering (DWT).
BIOFUELS
Indian oilpalm investor Foods, Fats and Fertilizers (FFF) obtained a permit for production in Brokopondo district, for working an area of 33.000 acres (DWT).
SECURITY
Surinam is purchasing three helicopters for the airforce from India. The trio of Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv will be delivered by Hindustan Aeronatics Limited (HAL). The aircraft will be used to transport troops, but they may also be used in combat. The advent of this equipment will give enormous strategic and tactical advantages to the Surinam armed forces in their aims to project power and presence throughout the dense forests of the interior, where the use of fixed wing aircraft is limited. The deal also highlights the growing role of India in Surinam (DWT).
Brazil’s Odebrecht in Angolan biodiesel
In Angola, Biofuels, Brazil on January 10, 2009 at 10:19 pmSao Paulo, Brazil, 8 Jan – Brazilian company Odebrecht and its Angolan partners are this month due to open a 4,000 hectare sugar cane plantation on a property close to the Capanda hydroelectric dam, Brazilian newspaper Valor Económico reported Wednesday.
Read the news story at Macauhub
New sugar mill for Brazil
In Biofuels, Brazil on December 12, 2008 at 10:01 amBRASILIA, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Grain processor Bunge Ltd (BG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Japanese trading house Itochu Corp (8001.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday they will build a sugar cane mill in Brazil’s Tocantins state.
Read the news feature at Reuters
Brazil’s ethanol business
In Biofuels, Brazil on November 29, 2008 at 6:01 pmWHEN John McCain laid out his plans for reducing America’s dependence on oil to an audience in California on June 23rd, the candidate’s keenest listeners were 6,000 miles away in São Paulo. Mr McCain argued that the tariff on imported ethanol of 54 cents per gallon should be scrapped. Others in the Senate (though not Barack Obama) are pushing for it to be reduced. Either way, the case against the tariff has been strengthened by high oil prices and by the June floods that damaged the mid-western corn (maize) crop. That sent corn prices soaring and made subsidising corn to produce ethanol look like an even worse idea than it did before, given the greener, cheaper ethanol that the United States could buy from Brazil instead.
