I Love Brazil

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Brazilianwonder: My concern with investing in Brazil is that foreign money is pouring into the country making its currency stronger and consequently hurting the export biz which we so much depend on.


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September 29, 2006

SouthAmerica: I just published an article on this web site that answers your question regarding the Brazilian currency. You can read it at " The Decaying of America" thread.

I wrote many articles about the Brazilian currency in the last 6 years and I have not changed my mind about it.

Someone asked a question about the real estate market in Brazil and all I can say is that I would not invest my money on property in Brazil at this time until I know that two things are happening in Brazil – first, crime is getting under control – second, Brazil is moving in the direction of adopting the “New Asian currency” that it will be adopted by Asian countries in the near future.

In the meantime, the appreciation of the real versus the US dollar it is hurting the Brazilian economy – and you don’t need to look further than what is happening to the export of Volkswagens made in Brazil – the exchange rate is hurting so much that management wants to layoff thousands of workers at their plant in Sao Paulo.

The worse part is that the US dollar it will decline in world markets from now to the end of the year against the euro and the real.

That would be my guess, and I still think the US dollar it will reach the US$ 1.40 versus the Euro in the coming months. It is a matter of time and we will get there.


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November 22, 2006

SouthAmerica: Today the headline on the front page of a major Brazilian newspaper – A Folha de Sao Paulo said: “Brazilian investments in foreign countries reached a record” – For the first time in the history of investments in Brazil: in 2006 the amount of investments made by Brazilian companies in other countries it will be larger than the amount that will be invested in Brazil by foreign corporations.



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“Investimento do Brasil no exterior bate recorde”
A Folha de Sao Paulo
Quarta-feira, 22 de novembro de 2006

Pela primeira vez na história, recursos investidos por empresas nacionais no exterior vão superar valor que o Brasil recebe.


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Besides women with plump asses, the best product to come from Brazil are the Coffin Joe horror films from the 1960s.

coffinjoe.jpg
 
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International Herald Tribune - France
“Brazil looking to expand nuclear program”
Source: The Associated Press
Published: November 22, 2006


SAO PAULO, Brazil: Brazil's government intends to build four new nuclear plants and increase oil and petrochemical refining capacity as part of a strategic plan for the energy sector up to 2030, an official said Wednesday.

Brazil still would remain reliant on hydroelectric power plants for an overwhelming majority of its energy, said Mauricio Tolmasquim, president of the government's energy research agency.

By 2030, hydroelectric power is expected to account for 70 percent of electric energy capacity compared with the current level of 75 percent.

Tolmasquim said the government will look to promote alternative sources.

Those include four new nuclear plants to be built in the northeast and southeast of the country starting in 2015. Each is projected to have generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

The plan also includes the completion of the Angra 3 nuclear power plant in Rio de Janeiro, which has been stuck in the planning stage for a number of years.

Brazil currently has two operating nuclear plants, Angra 1 and Angra 2, with an installed capacity of about 2,000 megawatts. Angra 3 would raise nuclear capacity would reach 3,300 megawatts.

Tolmasquim told reporters in Brasilia that the country plans to add 105,650 megawatts of electric energy capacity between 2015 and 2030 from diverse sources.

Brazil recently raised international concern when it announced it would begin enriching uranium for peaceful purposes but then denied inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency complete access to its centrifuges. Eventually, a deal for limited inspections was reached.

Average electric energy demand is expected to rise by 3.5 percent per year through 2030.

Brazil will need to build five new oil refineries by 2030 to keep pace with growing oil production, Tolmasquim said. The first should have capacity of 250,000 barrels per day and would come on line in around 2015, and one of the four others would be a petrochemical refinery with capacity of 150,000 barrels per day.

He said two others would have a capacity of 250,000 barrels of diesel each while the final, focused on gasoline, would be capable of producing 250,000 barrels per day.

Also Wednesday, Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras said it planned to spend US$780 million (€605 million) from 2007 to 2011 to develop renewable energy.

Most of the spending will go toward biofuels, while the remainder will be used for the production of electricity from solar, wind and small hydroelectric power plants, Petrobras chief financial officer Almir Barbassa said.

Barbassa said planned investments for renewable energies are still "small when compared to the company's total investments."

Brazil already is a leader in alternative fuel with ethanol, which is largely distributed by Petrobras. The country's biodiesel industry is still in its infancy, but is growing fast.

Petrobras also plans a 2-billion-real (US$923-million; €716-million) upgrade to its oil pipeline system in Sao Paulo state. Construction on new pipeline portions and the recovery of existing parts will begin in the second half of 2008 and take two years to complete.


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Its based 100 % on commodity prices. That is Brasil's econ at this point.

10 years from now, maybe diff, but now, look at commodity prices.

Jay
 
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“Cane to keep Brazil in vanguard of global biofuels”
Reuters – November 27, 2006

BRASILIA, Brazil, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Brazil could more than double its sugar cane land in the next few years and is betting that the advantages of cane over corn as a feedstock for ethanol will keep it a leader in the nascent global biofuels market, the country's agriculture minister said on Monday.

"We could double, even triple, the land planted with cane," Luis Guedes said during an international biofuels conference in Brasilia.

Brazil has become a leader in the ethanol boom in recent years after developing cars that run on the fuel, a plant-derived gasoline substitute that can be made most efficiently -- in terms of production costs -- from sugar cane.

Ethanol is renewable and cleaner than gasoline from crude, which emits heat-trapping carbon gases into the atmosphere. Ethanol releases carbon gas when burned, but this is offset by each new cane crop which consumes atmospheric CO2 to grow.

As the world's largest sugar producer, Brazil has used ethanol to power cars for decades but the fuel became popular when gasoline prices spiked a few years ago.

In 2003, the local auto industry developed cars that run on ethanol, gasoline, or both. Today, flex-fuel vehicles make up 80 percent of new car sales.

Ethanol production neared 17 billion liters and exports more than tripled in two years, hitting 2.6 billion liters in 2005, as other countries saw the appeal.

Today Brazil sells ethanol to Asia, Europe and North America, but prices are volatile because demand is still erratic and a proper futures market has not yet developed for hedging.

"Our proposal is that other countries start producing ethanol," said Guedes. "To become a commodity, we have to have several suppliers in the global market."

In fact, the United States is now the world's biggest ethanol producer but it is not expected to export and will likely continue to import the fuel. The United States is the leading destination for Brazilian ethanol exports.

U.S. ethanol is almost entirely from corn, which is costlier because it demands more water, area, fertilizer and energy to grow.

Critics of the U.S. renewable fuels program point out that corn ethanol produces only about 1.5 times the energy it takes to grow versus about 8.3 times for cane ethanol.

Cane mills say that Brazilian ethanol, which is subsidy-free, is competitive with gasoline prices as long as world oil remains above about $30 to $35 a barrel, whereas U.S. ethanol production from corn is even now heavily dependent on a 51 cents-a-gallon federal tax credit.

Currently, the agriculture ministry estimates Brazil needs to plant 3 million more hectares with sugar cane -- far below Guedes' estimate -- to meet foreign and domestic demand in 2013. At present, Brazil produces 450 million tonnes of cane on 6 million hectares.

Some environmentalists have criticized Brazil's fast growing ethanol program, saying cane crop expansion could threaten rainforest.

But Guedes said Brazil could double the area planted without cutting down any trees if it used only degraded pastureland and already deforested areas.


Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27490658.htm


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A couple things on Brazil. One- for some reason i've been really yearning to go lately. And it's not the girl's butts. Not to RIO either but to the Northern less crowded hard to get to area. Of course I have a 3 year old so that type of travel I can't undertake now and one of their planes just recently crashed into a mountain out there taking down a whole lot of people and my airline play GOL. So it still seems a little risky. And a friend of mine (girl) just came back from Rio cutting her vacation off a little early after getting mugged.
On the investment side. I think you are selling the politicians down there a little short and the bankers, they've done an awful lot behind the scenes to strengthen their economy. Of course natural resources have been huge but they are really cleaning up there act over there in the corporate world.
I undertook a big research effort to find the perfect stock down there and I kept coming back to one ARACRUZ. I don't want to bore you with a lot of mumbo jumbo but the thesis is: this is the most ecologically friendly company you could imagine, they make paper from eucalyptuses trees which they plant. Great earnings power, a little expensive right now, that's problem one holding me off. Problem two is excess capacity new mills coming on in Peru. In the paper game that excess capacity is something you got to watch for it's a killer. So these two factors have held me off. That of course hasn't stopped the stock it's marched up nicely on me from $55 range to closer to $60. If your looking for a REALLY good company that's good to Mother nature in Brazil there's only one play and it's ARACRUZ. (ARA)
 
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August 18, 2007

SouthAmerica: Regarding the internet – Brazilians are adapting very well to the world of the future.



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“Internauta brasileiro passa quase um dia na rede por mês”
A Folha de Sao Paulo
18 de Agosto de 2007

O internauta brasileiro quebrou o recorde de tempo de navegação. Em julho, passou em média 23 horas e 30 minutos na rede, segundo relatório do Ibope/NetRatings divulgado nesta sexta-feira.

A marca é uma hora e três minutos maior do que a de junho. São considerados nesta pesquisa apenas os usuários ativos domiciliares, ou seja, pessoas que acessam a rede ao menos uma vez por mês de casa.

O Brasil se mantém com maior tempo médio de navegação residencial do planeta. Completam a lista dos cinco países com maior tempo de navegação os Estados Unidos (19 horas e 52 minutos), Japão (18 horas e 41 minutos), Alemanha (18 horas 7 minutos) e Austrália (17 horas 51 minutos).

Esse é o maior tempo médio por internauta residencial já reportado pela pesquisa desde o início das suas operações, em 1998.


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