Brazil Infrastructure

choi

本文通过一路BBS站telnet客户端发布

Every so often, Financial Times (FT) reviews a topic, which on May 6, 2010 was titled Brazil Infrastructure.
http://www.ft.com/reports/brazil-infrastructure-2010

It seems that Brazil is coming back to life.

There are a few wonderful reports.

(1) World-class farmers stymied by heavy cost of bad roads; Agriculture; Jonathan Wheatley reports on the difficulty of getting goods to market.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fb1d2bf4-571b-11df-aaff-00144feab49a,dwp_uuid=b9c736f0-5715-11df-aaff-00144feab49a.html

(a) Quote:

"The land there [in the centre-west of Brazil] was regarded as useless for agriculture because of its high acidity. But, by putting down chalk and other additives, farmers made it one of the most fertile areas in Brazil.

"Brazil has become the world’s biggest exporter of a host of agricultural commodities including beef, chicken, orange juice, green coffee, sugar, ethanol, tobacco and the “soya complex” of beans, meal and oil, as well as the fourth-biggest exporter of maize and pork.

(b) Note:
(i) lorry (n: etymology: origin unknown): "chiefly British : MOTORTRUCK"
(ii) verve (n): " the spirit and enthusiasm animating artistic composition or performance : VIVACITY"
(iii) Paranaguá is a sea port in the state of Paraná.

The state of Mato Grosso do Sul is on northwestern corner of Paraná.

Please see the map of Brazil, next to section 2.3 "States and municipalities."

Maranhão is a state in the north, whose capital is São Luís.

(iv) cerrado
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerrado
("The cerrado (English: 'closed' or 'inaccessible') is a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil")
(v) For "greeen coffee," see

coffee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
(section 4.1.1 Preparing green coffee: as opposed to picking only the berries at the peak of ripeness, more commonly, crops are strip picked, where all berries are harvested simulatneously regardless of ripeness. Then this green coffee is processed and sorted by ripeness and color)

(vi) Norte-Sul railway is "North-South railway" in English.

(c) My comment: You may want to stop reading at the paragraph that ended with "But the proposed links to Mato Grosso are not”--about two thirds down the report.


(2) In need of a wider range of driving skills; Highways; Vincent Bevins considers the urgent need for new roads.

Excerpt in the window of the print: "Of the 1.6m kilometres of highways, only 12 per cent are paved and driving on unpaved roads adds 35 per cent to costs.

caption to a photo of a wooden-board bridge over a creek: Shaky ground: the hardest hit sector is farming.

My comment: Other than this, there is no need to read the report.


(3) Once mighty sector feels a rush along its keel; Shipyards;  Vincent Bevins reports on a massive programme to revitalise the industry.

Quote:

(a) "When asked recently about Brazil's shipping industry, a Greek engineer working in a South Korean shipyard replied: 'I didn't know they had  they had one.'

"This has been a forgivable misconception. Until very recently, the last ship built in Brazil to help meet the sizeable demands of Petrobras, the national oil company, was contracted in 1987.

"But it is a perception the country is hoping to change.

(b) "The plan has put the once mighty industry back to work. In the 1970s, Brazil had the second-largest industrial fleet in the world.

"By 2000, the entire sector had about 200 workers. Now there are 45,000

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest of the report.
(b) Brazilian shipbuilding industry "in the eighties was among the most important in the world together with Japan."


(4) Punching well below its weight; Steel industry; Andrew Downie finds obstacles in the way of growth.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d3c66c90-571c-11df-aaff-00144feab49a,dwp_uuid=b9c736f0-5715-11df-aaff-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

(a) Excerpt in the window of the print: The country was rated a lowly 129th out of 183 nations in the World Bank’s Doing Business report.

(b) Quote:

"Brazilians consume just 100kg of steel per person per year, a number that has barely changed since 1980 and is well below that of peer countries

"China, for example, consumed 30kg of steel per person per year 30 years ago and is now using 300kg.

"Spaniards use 500kg and South Koreans a whopping 1,200kg. Brazilian use has remained stagnant for three decades, largely because the country has not invested enough in infrastructure.

My comment:
(a) Coal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal
where section 10 "10 Production trends" has three tables for
(i) World coal reserves
(ii) Major coal producers
(iii) Major coal exporters

Brazil has a sizable coal reserve but has to import a great deal of coal, for failure to mine its own coal, to support steel industry.

(b) Iron ore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_ore

In section 2 Production and consumption, there is a table "Estimated iron ore production in million metric tons for 2006," where the top five are:

China 520
Australia 270
Brazil 250
India 150
Russia 105

(United States is No. 7: 54m metric tons)

--