Source: Gazeta Mercantil
Source: CNN Financial Network (www.cnnfn.com)
Bruno Otero of Santander Bank added, “Our fundamentals are good, but we are still suffering a lot from U.S. troubles. We hope the market soon comes to a point when everyone realizes that stocks have become very cheap and that the overall climate here is good. Then there should be a good rise.”
Brazil’s economy grew 4.46% last year, powered by industrial output, and the country has made a solid recovery from two years of stagnation.
Despite some fears of growing inflation, due in large part to the real’s weakness and a weak trade balance, Brazil’s economy is expected to grow around 4% this year, which fuels the market’s optimism. However, in recent weeks, Brazilian markets have been under heavy pressure from worries over the U.S. economic slowdown and fears of a regional contagion from the Argentine economic crisis. The Bovespa index has lost 10% since the start of 2001.
Source: CNN Financial Network (www.cnnfn.com)
“This site goes beyond copper. We trade various metals such as aluminum, lead and zinc,” said Victor Perez, CEO of the Chilean mining website Webminero, which is Emetra’s exclusive Latin American agent.
Emetra is currently working to standardize online metals trading in terms of documentation and technology. Another immediate plan is to consolidate the company’s Documentation Center, where documents can be transferred electronically. This was expected to be ready by the end of April.
Source: CNN Financial Network (www.cnnfn.com)
The sales opportunities for chemical products, process control engineering, process engineering plants and equipment in particular are excellent for the medium to long term in the core states of the Mercosur. The turnover of the Brazilian chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors in 1998 of US$33.4 billion gained by 17% in only the first half of 2000 and continues to grow.
The Brazilian industrial association Abiquim, the congress partner of KölnMesse International, anticipates investments of roughly US$5.1 billion by its members by the year 2004, $1.7 billion of that for machinery and equipment. This does not yet include projects resulting from the new gas supplies from Bolivia that will be constructed in coming years in Brazil. A number of petrochemical industrial regions and thermal power plants are planned. The best export opportunities will be in the areas of pumps, compressors and plant construction, process, control and environmental engineering, as well as water and wastewater technologies.
For more information, contact KölnMesse International GmbH, (49) 221-821-2096, fax (49) 221-821-3222, e-mail quimtec@kmi.koelnmesse.de, or visit http://www.quimtec.com.
The president of Chile’s Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), Ricardo Ariztia, criticized the government’s reluctance to privatize national institutions, saying, “It is not clear whether the government really believes in privatization or not…. We are appealing to the government to start privatizing the country’s most significant institutions, including all the state-owned companies such as the National Petroleum Company (Enap), the Post Office, the National Mining Company (Enami) and the National Copper Corporation (Codelco).” Ariztia added that selling these companies could generate a total of US$30 billion for the government’s coffers.
In the course of the conference, Icare conducted a survey to evaluate the general attitude within the business sector. Entitled “What Do You Expect From The Year 2001?,” the survey showed that only 12% of Chilean business people feel optimistic about the future of the economy.
Source: Santiago Times
The work, which is being done by Mineropar in partnership with the municipalities, is part of the “Mining Wealth” project. The project is expected to result in complete and detailed reports on mineral areas in each municipality, as well as indications of their exploration potential. “It is part of the government’s policy to expand opportunities for generating employment and credit for the population,” Akel said.
“With the final reports in their possession, the government and the municipalities are going to talk with private business people, presenting them with opportunities to invest to take advantage of this wealth,” he said. The project will obtain more exact data on which municipalities are the most promising, the localization of mining areas within these municipalities, and the most important minerals that could be explored. After the fieldwork, all the material collected by the geologists and technicians will be analyzed in Mineropar’s laboratories. The fieldwork will take place simultaneously in the three municipalities, and Akel said that he hopes the company will be able to start work in other areas every month or so.
Source: Business News Americas (www.BNamericas.com)
Freire, a member of the neo-communist Partido Popular Socialista Party (PPA) believes the energy sector is strategic to the economy and that it is necessary to generate new energy sources rather than sell existing and operational plants. “At the present moment [the energy sector] is in crisis in the face of slight economic recovery, with the risk of rationing and power cuts,” Freire said.
Source: www.eyeforenergy.com <.I>