Category: Brazil

US-based Alcoa, the world´s top aluminum producer, is considering investing $1.6 billion in Brazil through its subsidiary Alcoa Aluminio. The resources would be used to increase the capacity of its refinery in Maranhão state from 1.6 million tons of alumina per year to 3.6 million tons, and to build a new mine in Para state to produce 3 million tons of bauxite. Alcoa’s international chairman Alain Belda has said the company wants to create an aluminum complex in northern Brazil, and that the country will soon become an important aluminum supplier for the international market.

to join discussions at Brazil – The Way Forward, The 3rd Brazil Investment Forum in Rio de Janeiro, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2005. Apply for your invitation today at www.latinfinance.com/brazil

Financially-troubled Brazilian airline Varig has agreed to sell its logistics unit, VarigLog, to US private equity firm Matlin Patterson. VarigLog was valued at $100 million, but after liabilities Patterson will pay $38 million in cash for 95 percent of the company. The remaining 5 percent belongs to Aerus, a local pension fund of airline employees. The deal, which must be authorized by the Rio de Janeiro-based court handling Varig’s debt restructuring process, is expected to be concluded by the end of August.

Votorantim bank, the financial arm of Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim, reported net earnings of $143 million in the first half of the year, down 4 percent year-on-year. The Votorantim group plans to inject $207 million into the bank by the end of the month, boosting its net equity to $1.5 billion. Votorantim’s loan portfolio expanded 58 percent year-on-year to $3.75 billion.

to join discussions at Brazil – The Way Forward, The 3rd Brazil Investment Forum in Rio de Janeiro, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2005. Apply for your invitation today at www.latinfinance.com/brazil

to join discussions at Brazil – The Way Forward, The 3rd Brazil Investment Forum in Rio de Janeiro, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2005. Apply for your invitation today at www.latinfinance.com/brazil

to join discussions at Brazil – The Way Forward, The 3rd Brazil Investment Forum in Rio de Janeiro, 31 Aug – 1 Sep 2005. Apply for your invitation today at www.latinfinance.com/brazil

Brazil’s Finance Minister Antonio Palocci denied an allegation he took bribes when he was a mayor in the 1990s and said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will keep him in his post. Palocci said the allegations won’t slow growth and that Lula has no plans to change the country’s economic policy. Rogerio Buratti, an aide to Palocci when he was mayor of Ribeirao Preto in the 1990s, testified to state prosecutors that Palocci received about $20,000 a month from a company in charge of the city’s trash collection.

Petroleo Brasileiro, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, plans to raise natural gas prices inside Brazil for the first time in more than two years to adjust for an increase in import prices and production and transportation costs. The firm will increase prices of natural gas imported from Bolivia 13 percent as of September 1 and an additional 10 percent November 1. The company will also increase the price of natural gas produced in Brazil 6.5 percent as of September 1 and an additional 5 percent as of November 1.

Subject to a final decision in January, the US Department of Commerce ruled to impose duties of 24.62% to 60.29% on Brazilian orange juice exports. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of orange juice and has steadily taken market share in the US from producers in Florida.