. September 16, 2010 SouthAmerica: The "superporto do Acu" - the port and industrial complex that is being erected on the Rio coastline, on an area equivalent to 12,000 football fields. ***** âBrazil's huge new port highlights China's drive into South Americaâ Investments guarantee Chinese access to soy, oil and other badly needed resources By: Tom Phillips - in Sao Joao da Barra guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 September 2010 Blades slicing through the morning heat, the helicopter rose from the tarmac and swept into a cobalt sky, high above Rio's Guanabara Bay. It powered north-east over deserted beaches, dense Atlantic rainforest and fishing boats that bobbed lazily in the ocean below. Then finally, 80 minutes on, the destination came into view: a gigantic concrete pier that juts nearly two miles out into the South Atlantic and boasts an unusual nickname: the Highway to China. Dotted with orange-clad construction workers and propped up by dozens of 38-tonne pillars, this vast concrete structure is part of the Superporto do Acu, a £1.6bn port and industrial complex that is being erected on the Rio coastline, on an area equivalent to 12,000 football pitches. Reputedly the largest industrial port complex of its type in the world, Açu is also one of the most visible symbols of China's rapidly accelerating drive into Brazil and South America as it looks to guarantee access to much-needed natural resources and bolster its support base in the developing world. When Acu opens for business in 2012, its 10-berth pier will play host to a globetrotting armada of cargo ships, among them the 380-metre wide ChinaMax â the largest vessel of its type, capable of ferrying 400,000 tonnes of cargo. Millions of tonnes of iron ore, grain, soy and millions of barrels of oil are expected to pass along the "Highway" each year on their way east, where they will alleviate China's seemingly unquenchable thirst for natural resources. "This project marks a new phase in relations between Brazil and China," Rio's economic development secretary, Julio Bueno, said during the recent visit of about 100 Chinese businessmen to the port complex, which is being built by the Brazilian logistics company LLX and should receive billions of dollars of Chinese investment. This new phase of engagement with Brazil and South America, is part of China's "going out strategy" â an economic and, some say, diplomatic push for Chinese companies, many of them state-run, to invest abroad, snapping up access to minerals, energy and food by pouring the country's colossal foreign reserves into overseas companies and projects. China is expected to overtake Japan as the world's second largest economy this year and may already be the world's greatest energy consumer. Now it is set to become Brazil's top foreign investor, with its companies plowing $20bn into the country in the first six months of 2010, compared with $83m in 2009. A recent study by Deloitte predicted that Chinese investments in Brazil could hit an average of about $40bn a year between now and 2014, with companies throwing money at sectors ranging from telecommunications, infrastructure and farming, to oil, biofuels, natural gas, mining and steel manufacturing. "Relations with Brazil in all areas have entered a new era," Qiu Xiaoqi, China's ambassador in Brazil, recently told the state news agency Xinhua. The surge in China's South American spending is not just a Brazilian phenomenon. Ecuador has already signed around $5bn of bilateral deals with China this year, including $1.7bn to help build a hydro-electric dam and $1bn investments for oil exploration and infrastructure projects. That compared with Chinese investment of just $56m in 2009. Chinese companies have sunk $1.4bn into mining operations in Peru this year, while in April Hugo Chávez announced that the Chinese, already major sponsors of Venezuelan oil exploration, had agreed to open a $20bn credit-line for the "Bolivarian revolution". Michael Klare, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, a book about the growing tussle for global resources, described today's China as "the shopaholic of planet Earth". "The Chinese authorities understand that to sustain the country's continued growth, they will have to ensure that its industries are provided with adequate supplies of energy, minerals, and other basic raw materials," he said. But the "going out" strategy went far beyond business transactions, he added. "They seek to fashion a multipolar world in which no single power â read the United States â plays an overwhelmingly dominant role. To this end, they seek to bolster ties with rising regional powers like Brazil and South Africa." In Sao Joao da Barra, the city nearest to Acu and one of Rio state's poorest regions, the Chinese presence is being felt even before Brazil's Highway to China is complete. Keen to impress, LLX staff at the Açu port lay on hot water and Mandarin interpreters for visiting Chinese dignitaries. Sao Joao da Barra's town hall, meanwhile, has started offering free Mandarin lessons to locals interested in working with the wave of Chinese guests that is anticipated. "You should see a 10-year-old boy saying, 'I understand ⦠the Chinese are coming and when the Chinese industries come I want to work for them and if I speak Mandarin I'll have a competitive advantage on the others'," beamed Eike Batista, the billionaire entrepreneur behind the superport and one of the most vocal cheerleaders for Chinese advances into Brazil. "[It is] wonderful." Leonardo Gadelha, LLX's CFO, said during a recent tour of the port: "This is part of a Chinese strategy of going to the market more and more. They are already a very considerable presence in Africa and we are now going through this moment in Brazil." The Highway to China lay "in the middle" of this blossoming relationship with China, he said, adding: "We are betting that ⦠this will continue growing." Not all Brazilians, or indeed western governments, share such enthusiasm. "There are many in Washington who worry about China's growing presence in Africa and Latin America and claim that this poses a threat to America's long-term strategic interests," said Klare, noting, however, that the US' "fixation" with Afghanistan and the war on terror meant there had been virtually no reaction. In Brazil meanwhile China's arrival has prompted cries of neo-colonialism. "The Chinese have bought Africa and now they are trying to buy Brazil," the prominent economist Antônio Delfim Netto complained in a recent interview with the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, warning that it was a "grave mistake" to allow a foreign state to buy "land, minerals [and] natural resources" from another sovereign power. Batista, Brazil's richest man, rejected such criticism, saying: "The association between Brazil and China is a two-way highway." Chinese companies such as Wuhan Iron and Steel had committed to helping build a $5bn steel mill at the port complex, rather than always shipping out primary resources to process at home, he pointed out. "You want to get three tonnes of raw iron ore, [so] produce one tonne of steel in Brazil," he said. "That philosophy is sinking in and is great for both sides." Neither would Chinese companies be allowed to flood the complex with hordes of foreign workers as had happened in Africa, said Gadelha, the CFO. "If it was up to them they would bring lots of Chinese workers as they are used to doing," he admitted. "[But] Brazil's legislation is very strict in this sense." Batista suggested that rather than complaining about China's courtship of Brazil, western powers should urge their own companies to pay more attention to the region themselves. "In the last 15 years or so the [American and European] CEOs have stopped coming here and that is why they are a little bit behind," he said. "We are pushing European companies and saying: 'You're not really understanding what is happening in Brazil'." "Don't put Brazil in the same bag as our neighbours," he added. "We are not Central America. We are not Venezuela. We are not Argentina." *** Beijing's deals Brazil In November 2009 Brazilian energy giant Petrobras signed a $10bn loan deal with China's Development Bank. As part of the deal Petrobras will guarantee the supply of 200,000 barrels of oil per day to China over the next 10 years. Chinese companies and state banks pumped around $20bn into Brazil in the first half of this year Venezuela Hugo Chávez, pictured, unveiled a $20bn credit line from China's Development Bank to fund the "Bolivarian revolution" in April Ecuador The country has already signed around $5bn of bilateral deals with China this year, including $1.7bn to help build a hydro-electric dam and $1bn investments for oil exploration and infrastructure projects. In 2009 direct Chinese investment in the country was just $56m Peru Chinese companies invested $1.4bn in mining operations in Peru during the first four months of this year, making China the country's second largest trade partner http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/brazil-port-china-drive .
. September 17, 2010 SouthAmerica: Just a reminder. Here is what I posted on the Elite Trader Forum a little over 2 years ago. ***** Here is why the worldâs smart money is being invested in Brazil http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...d+a+copy+of+my+article+to+various#post1950173 June 8, 2008 SouthAmerica: Reply to ShoeshineBoy I posted the following on this forum in May 2005 as part of a discussion with a college professor. By the way if you never had the chance of reading that thread it is worth reading it from todays' perspective looking back to what was said 3 years ago about the coming years. The college professorsâ name was Sir Scud. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...Scud#post756082 This thread was about economics but for some reason it was moved to the politics and religion forum. Quoting from that thread: âI am used to peopleâs reactions to my writings. I receive a lot of emails, some nice, and some from people giving me a hard time. Last year the editor of the Brazilian newspaper in New York, told me that I am the most controversial writer he has on the newspaper. Usually he goes to all the functions they have in New York related to Brazil; parties, lectures, all kind of shows - he covers everything - and he knows everybody in the Brazilian community in New York. He told me that most of the time when people approached him at these functions and started talking about an article published on his newspaper usually was one of mine articles.â The editor of Brazzil magazine also said the same thing to me a few years ago â he said I was the most controversial writer he had on the magazine. And my articles usually generated the largest number of letters to the editor, and many readers send me emails directly to me regarding many of these articles. Maybe because of human nature a large number of people who usually send a comment regarding the articles are the ones who got pissed about the content of the article for one reason or another and that served as an incentive for them to take the time to write a letter to the editor, or an email directly to me. But I also get very rewarding letters from very smart people such as well known writers from various countries (Including from England, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, the United States and from Asia) and college professors from top notch US, European and Brazilian Universities - and that makes all the difference. I realized that a lot of very smart and intelligent people were reading my articles and they contact me to let me know with their comments and with notes saying that they enjoyed so much reading the article that they were sending a copy of the article to some of their friends. A little over 3 years ago I created an account and started posting stuff on the Elite Trader Forum and at that time there were around 25,000 members registered on this forum. Around the same time (May 2005) I compiled a list of emails of every college professor of the Economic Departments, and Business Schools â Undergrad and Graduate schools â from the top 20 ranked economic departments of American universities. We are talking about 20 top universities times an average of 50 teachers per school â a list of about 1,000 economic professors including all kinds of influential people (book writers, and economic professors who had the chance to work for all levels of government, and so on) also including all the teachers that won the Economics Nobel Prize. About 3 years ago I started sending an email directly to everybody on this particular list with a copy of my articles and I also included some links to some of the information that I had posted on the Elite Trader Forum. My email also had a little note promoting the Elite Trader website as a great place for students to go to learn about anything related to the US financial markets. I figured that each teacher had at least 5 classes with an average of 15 students per class to be on the conservative side that gives a potential 75,000 new eyeballs checking the discussions on Elite Trader â and if you consider that all these professors and their students mentioned about this cool website to their friends and the other teachers â the potential to bring a few hundred thousand new members to this forum was there. It is not by chance that the number of members on this forum increased from 25,000 members 3 years ago to the current figure of about 105,000 registered members. Elite Trader used to show the number of registered members on the page were you Log in until about 2 weeks ago then the information disappeared, but at the time when they stopped showing that information this forum had about 105,000 registered members. I bet thousands of members registered on this forum found this website because of my direct promotional efforts. I don't understand why Elite Trader Forum stopped showing the number of registered members? ShoeshineBoy, as you said on your posting there is only 10 to 20 percent of postings content that are worth reading it, but my goal was to bring in as many smart people as possible to this forum I also posted many times info about this forum on The Charlie Rose Show and posted replies in The Financial Times were I also mentioned this forum. But along the way I understand that we are also going to get some idiots such as Trader Zones or some religious freaks such as a person who uses the name Jesus on his postings on this forum and he is trying to imply that he has the word of God. That person probably escaped from some mental institution. Anyway, thanks for your support and I would be disappointed if you did agree with most of my points of view. If you agree with my points of view only 60 percent of the time that would be just fine with me â I donât want anyone to agree with me 100 percent of the time. I am going to tell you a secret just between us â usually when I meet many of my Brazilian friends most of them usually take Brazil apart about everything â they complain about everything in sight and they trash my country from the economy to the politics, to crime and so on. I am the only one who is always defending Brazil and trying to show to all these people all the positive sides of the things that are happening in Brazil and how Brazil is prospering and becoming a great place. .
Brazil is definity a huge trading hub for the world. From Curitiba up to Fontaieza. Many of my clients move goods through these ports and the over all infastructure of Brazil is being slowly put together. It's a huge export nation as well. Santos is where many of my Brazil'n clients have their main offices. It's a classy little city. But a hop,skip and jump to San Paulo. Money is flowing into the region as fast as it's flowing outa the EU and USA. Chile, Agrentina, are also on fire. Burinam is stabel as is Guyana. Most of Latin America has seen positive growth except Venezuela. For obvious reasons and many of the Latin American Countries do not trade with Venezuela due to the Complications, red tape of the goverment. China, Mexico, and the US are huge trading partners with Most of Latin America, outside Petro. Of course PETRO is traded with the world.
. September 28, 2010 SouthAmerica: Here is a "Reality Check". I have been documenting this trend for many years on my articles, and on my postings here on the ET forums, and many people on the ET forum were in denial and they did not believe me based on their follow up postings. ***** 10 Signs The U.S. Is Losing Its Influence In The Western Hemisphere by Gus Lubin in Recession, Emerging Markets Published by: the Business Insider Sep 27, 2010 Even if the U.S. hadn't crashed into a financial crisis, there are demographic, material, and political forces that have been spreading power around the Americas for decades. Brazil is first among the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) -- four economies that are supposed to overtake the six largest Western economies by 2032. Canada and Venezuela are oil powers of the distant future. Peru and Chile are sitting on a fortune of metals and minerals. All these countries are cranking up, while America faces plenty of fiscal and demographic problems at home. Here are Signs the U.S. Is Losing Its Influence In Its Own Backyard: Our most powerful regional ally--Brazil--refuses to follow our orders on Iran Hillary Clinton went to Brazil to beg support for sanctions against Iran and came away empty handed._ Now the UN is counting on Brazil, which is friendly with America and Iran, to lead nuclear diplomacy. The World's Richest Man is now a Mexican, not an American. For the first time in 16 years, the World's Richest Man is not an American. Carlos Slim, worth $54 billion, is the first Latin American to hold that title and one of many emerging market billionaires to eclipse the U.S. Three years after a US financial crisis, Latin America is again growing rapidly. The U.S.? Not so much... Compare this to what happened during the Great Depression. Latin America was devastated when U.S. investment dried up and the export market soured in the 30s. A League of Nations report said Chile, Peru, and Bolivia suffered the world's worst depression. Today is quite different. Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico have led a buoyant recovery from the global recession, according to Reuters. The regional economy is expected by the UN to grow 4.3 percent in 2010. If the American consumer remains weak, Latin American exports will move elsewhere. Chile produces 300% more copper than America--the former world leader in copper production America used to lead the world in copper production. We produced 49% of the world's copper in 1929, according to this article from the archives. Today we produced 1.2 million tonnes yearly, compared to 5.4 million tonnes in Chile. Brazil now produces over four times as much iron ore as the U.S.. We used to lead that industry, too. America once led the world in iron mining. In 1892 we discovered the world's largest mine at the Great Lakes Mesabi Range. It was a wellspring for America's industrial might and the foundation of the rust belt. Now we claim reserves at 2,100 mt. Seven countries claim higher reserves, including Brazil at 8,900 mt._ We produce only 54 mt yearly, while Brazil produces 250 mt. Canada and Venezuela will pass the U.S. in oil production in the next decade America produces around 9 million barrels of oil a day. Venezuela and Canada each produce around 3 million._ But America's reserves are 21 billion barrels and may last less than a decade. Our oil-rich neighbors claim 99 billion bbl and 178 billion bbl, respectively, and will keep producing oil into the distant future. Now Brazil exports over twice as much beef as we do America used to lead the world in beef production. Although we still do, America exports only 800,000 mt of beef per year. Brazil exports 2,200,000 mt._ Here's some ironic excerpts from a 1911 NYT article: "American-Canadian syndicate to have world's largest beef plant in Brazil... The chilled beef industry has never been tried before in Brazil and has only recently gotten under way in Argentina." Brazil is now a critical partner for Russia, India, and China The acronym coined by Goldman Sachs to describe the four key emerging powers has taken on a life of its own._ Brazil, Russia, India, and China have held several summits and even discussed making a supranational currency -- that would pull the rug out from the U.S. dollar. What's important here is that global emerging powers have good relations and are inclined to work together. For instance, China just signed major contracts to build factories and a high-speed rail in Brazil. Brazil, Canada, and Mexico all invest a greater share of GDP in clean energy A Pew survey found that Brazil invests 0.37% of its economy in clean energy. Canada invests 0.25% and Mexico invests 0.14%._ America is eleventh in the world at 0.13%. Hugo Chavez is still in power The CIA has a notorious history of interventions in Latin America, supposedly targeting Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, Fidel Castro, Manuel Noriega, Rios Montt, Che Guevara, and many others._ But they haven't stopped Hugo Chavez from railing against the United States for years. Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/15-s...brazil-refuses-to-follow-our-orders-on-iran-1 .
. November 17, 2010 SouthAmerica: As usual Wall Street is clueless, but we in the process of having a major âPowershiftâ in Brazil. ******** Major âPowershiftâ in Brazil 17/11/2010 - 03h23 âDilma descarta manter cotas de siglas aliadas em ministériosâ Folha DE SÃO PAULO A presidente eleita, Dilma Rousseff, mandou abortar qualquer negociação com os partidos aliados para que cada um mantenha os mesmos ministérios em seu governo, informa a repotagem publicada na edição desta quarta-feira da Folha. Segundo a Folha apurou, a petista avisou a interlocutores que não aceitará essas imposições como critério para repartir os cargos da Esplanada, tampouco entrará no xadrez ministerial vestida numa "camisa-de-força". Ela disse que seu poder de escolha não pode ficar engessado pelas demandas da base, ainda que, em alguns casos, o pleito de manter as pastas seja contemplado. A determinação de Dilma é uma clara reação ao "pacto de não agressão" firmado entre PMDB, PR, PP, PTB e PSC, selado para ampliar seu poder de barganha. Dilma não quer repetir a "fotografia" do atual governo, apesar do carimbo da continuidade. A presidente eleita costuma dizer em conversas privadas que atender a essa demanda significa perder autonomia para definir sua própria equipe. A ideia de manter intocados os territórios hoje ocupados partiu do PMDB, defensor da tese de continuar com seis ministérios sob sua tutela. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/...-cotas-de-siglas-aliadas-em-ministerios.shtml .
. November 17, 2010 SouthAmerica: The translation of the above articles is: The new administration of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil is going to move to the left. .