Cheap Plastic Made from Sugarcane

Technology Review
July 24, 2011

Making plastic from sugar can be just as cheap as making it from petroleum, says Dow Chemical. The company plans to build a plant in Brazil that it says will be the world's largest facility for making polymers from plants.

The project will begin with the construction of a 240-million-liter ethanol plant, a joint venture with Mitsui, that is set to begin later this year. By the beginning of next year, Dow will finish engineering plans for facilities that will convert that ethanol into hundreds of thousands of metric tons of polyethylene, the world's most widely used plastic.

Bio-based chemicals production has grown quickly in recent years, but it still represents just 7.7 percent of the overall chemicals market. Production has been limited in many cases to specialty chemicals or niche products. But Dow now says chemicals made from plant feedstocks may be ready to compete head-to-head with petrochemicals made in large volumes.
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Lessons in cultural awareness

Financial Times
May 18, 2011

It is 9.04am and a group of Chinese businessmen have assembled solemnly outside a hotel conference room in São Paulo. Brazil’s stock exchange operator, BM&F Bovespa, was scheduled to kick off its first ever capital markets forum with China four minutes ago but, like many meetings in the Latin American country, it did not start on time. As the Brazilian guests arrive, complaining loudly about the morning’s traffic and heading straight for the free breakfast, the huge cultural gap between the two emerging market powers becomes apparent.

Since China displaced the US in 2009 as Brazil’s biggest trading partner, Brazilian company executives and politicians have been scrambling to understand better the Asian giant in their midst and work out the best way to deal with it. BM&F Bovespa, for example, has long wanted to list Brazilian stocks in Shanghai – as it has done in places such as Hong Kong and Paris – but wooing the Chinese mainland has proved painfully slow.

“They’re not like the Americans or the Europeans,” Edemir Pinto, the exchange’s chief executive, explains in exasperation. “Sometimes, you have to sign a memorandum of understanding just to have lunch with the Chinese.”

Embraer, the aeroplane manufacturer, has also experienced a long struggle to expand operations in China while deals in other sectors have fallen through over such seemingly trivial things as a misinterpreted e-mail.
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Superport is Brazil’s new route to China

Financial Times

May 9, 2011

The so-called Highway to China is one of the first infrastructure projects in Brazil built on a scale to match anything in the Asian nation from which it takes its nickname.

Officially known as the Açu Superport, the facility stretches into the sea off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro and is the most ambitious component of the portfolio of Eike Batista, Brazil’s richest man.

After it begins operations next year, it will be deep enough to service the Chinamax – a new vessel capable of shipping 400,000 tonnes of iron ore between Brazil and China, twice that of most existing bulk carriers plying the route.
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Brazil looks to China for industrial policy

Finanical Times
April 12, 2011

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff begins her first visit to China today for a summit of leaders from the Brics club of fast-growing emerging markets, the FT reports. While she will raise Brazil’s gripes with Beijing, such as China’s allegedly undervalued currency and greater reciprocity for Brazilian manufactured exports, Ms Rousseff will be keen to witness first-hand the Asian economic powerhouse’s successful experiment in statist industrial policy – an approach her government is increasingly moving towards at home.
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Additional Information:

• China says trade problems with Brazil limited
• China, Brazil pledge to enhance science cooperation 

Green Cars Could Be Made From Pineapples And Bananas

Anaheim CA (SPX) 
March 29, 2011

Your next new car hopefully won't be a lemon. But it could be a pineapple or a banana. That's because scientists in Brazil have developed a more effective way to use fibers from these and other plants in a new generation of automotive plastics that are stronger, lighter, and more eco-friendly than plastics now in use.
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Related Information:

• Chicken Fat Biofuel: Eco-Friendly Jet Fuel Alternative 

India, Russia Exploring JV in Solar Photovoltaic Cells

Russia and India Report
Feb 21, 2011

Faced with burgeoning demand for silicon wafers, India is exploring possibilities of setting up a joint venture company in Russia to source the key component required for its fledgling solar energy initiatives.

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Brazil Opens World's First Ethanol-fired Power Plant

Cnet.com
Jan 19, 2011

Brazil on Tuesday opened the world's first ethanol-fueled power plant in an effort by the South American biofuels giant to increase the global use of ethanol and boost its clean power generation.
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Brazil Oil Boom Boosts Job Market

The Rio Times
Jan 18, 2011

Spearheaded by record investment in the petroleum and natural gas industry, Brazil’s job market continues to grow at a breakneck pace. Billion dollar investments by the government and private companies have created a positive landscape for job seekers, with no sign of abating.
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Developments in Brazil Energy Sector

Rio Times
Jan 26, 2011

Iberdrola, Spain’s largest energy company and worldwide leader in wind production, has announced that it will acquire 99.68 percent of Elektro, a private utility company in Brazil, from Ashmore Energy International (AEI) for US$2.4 billion in cash pending the approval of the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL).

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NTT Data Sees 300 Billion Yen in Acquisitions, Targets Brazil

Bloomberg.com 
Jan 25, 2011 


NTT Data Corp., the network-services unit of Japan’s largest phone company, may spend as much as 300 billion yen ($3.7 billion) on acquisitions, focusing on targets with Brazilian operations, President Toru Yamashita said.
NTT Data is in talks with several targets that may result in purchases within a year, Yamashita said in an interview in Tokyo however, he declined to specify any names.
Helped by a stronger yen, it aims to capitalize on the expansion by Japanese manufacturers including Toyota Motor Corp. and Komatsu Ltd. in Latin America.
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