The world’s largest paper and packaging firm, International Paper, is doing its bit for sustainable forestry.
It has announced the relaunch of its Copier Grade paper product in the coming few weeks, which will be accredited by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC certifies forests and forestry product firms if they adhere to a wide [...]
Charcoal prices are rising in the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais, according to new reports citing investment in infrastructure as the reason behind the increase.
In June 2011, the value of the charcoal produced through sustainably-managed forests in the region rose in response to demand soaring. With the country hosting the Olympics in 2016 and [...]
Recent trends indicate that there have been significant growths in Canadian forestry from Chinese investors.
After several miserable years of mill closures and redundancies totalling up to 1,000in a single month, Canada is now looking forward to a brighter future for its forestry industry.
The major surge in the desire for Canadian timber from China has [...]
Brazil has more than 100 years of Eucalyptus biomass fuel experience, but the Dow Chemical Company will be the first Brazilian company in the chemical and petrochemical industry to utilise it.
The Dow Chemical Company has signed an 18-year supply agreement with Energias Renováveis do Brasil (ERB), where they will invest, install and operate a 13-megawatt [...]
Timber has been a popular asset amongst investors for many years. Due to their long-term nature of asset class and the amount of positive attributes they offer.
One of the main benefits is the attractive high interest rate returns over a long period. If one observes timberland activity over the past twenty years, timber has performed [...]
Over ten years Brazil has transformed itself into a financial powerhouse. The BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) were given more voting rights and seats at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
This marks Brazil’s emergence on the global stage.
Brazil with its oil reserves and booming agricultural sector indicates that the country’s economy could increase even [...]
Brazil set to become the seventh largest economy.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Brazil is expected to surpass Italy in 2011 as the seventh largest economy in the world, and will most likely keep that ranking until at least 2015.
Brazil’s current economy makes it already larger than both Russia and India combined. With a [...]
Brazil is to auction large sections of the Amazon forest to private timber companies and co-operatives in an effort to reduce the demand for illegal logging.
Finally, the government is reviewing its concessions for private companies to log its national forest, after years of legal battles and political opposition.
“The future of the Amazon …combating deforestation and [...]
ArcelorMittal Bio-energy is responsible for the production and marketing of the renewable commodities such as charcoal, wood, seeds and seedlings from the formation of Eucalyptus forests. From 2011-2016 the firm plans to invest $390 million with the aim to expand the production of charcoal from 2.5 million cubic metres up to 5.2 million m³ by [...]
What a difference a quarter makes.
Three months ago Brazil’s China-like growth provoked fears of overheating with higher and higher interest rates controlling the rising consumer prices. Now economic data has pointed to a sharp slowdown, punctuated by a drop in industrial production and slower retail sales growth.
Last week Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister [...]
Bolstered by high demand in the civil construction and infrastructure sectors prices for steel in the domestic market are poised to rise through the end of the year.
For two of Brazil’s three largest steelmakers a recent rise in the cost of imported steel could probably pave the way for another local price hike (the [...]
Growth is inevitable but never more so in Brazil where domestic demand is expected to explode over the next five to ten years.
At present this explosion is delayed by insufficient investment infrastructures, which have hindered the production of new capacity releases.
However, earlier this year the Brazilian government announced a five year economic growth acceleration program. [...]
According to the Brazilian government deforestation in the Amazon has declined by 47.5% during the past year. This data was supplied from a preliminary survey taken by a low resolution satellite. The figure is the highest decline in deforestation rates since records began in 1988, amounting to a 90% drop in deforestation since the peak [...]
Ok so this isn’t strictly related to forestry but let’s face it, this is interesting!
The ongoing saga of the new Amazon dam has finally come to an end with President Luiz Lula da Silva signing the contract for the Belo Monte dam with the Norte Energia consortium.
The 11,000 MW dam will become the world’s third [...]
I was researching alternative assets classes that not only could perform as well as the stock market but also provide good diversification opportunities as well as passive income possibility. One asset class which seems a little overlooked is timber. According to several sources, investing in timber has beaten the stock market by 4 percentage points [...]
It looks like Brazil will have to tighten monetary policy further if they wish to head off inflation. According to a central bank indicator Brazil’s economy expanded 9.35% in May compared to the previous year. This data comes on the back of tentative signs that the economy is cooling with the Brazilian Economic Activity Index for [...]
The pulp and paper sector in Brazil is fast becoming the third largest in the world.
In 2009 due to the international financial crisis the Brazilian pulp and paper industry had to postpone its investment programmes. However, thanks to the economy’s positive outlook and the emerging market’s increase in demand, most notably from China, those programmes [...]
A steel mill being built by 30,000 people and costing an astounding $8.2 billion is being announced at Brazil’s biggest private sector investment for 15 years. It is expected that this mill alone will boost Brazil’s annual steel exports by over 40%.
This is yet another electoral boost for President Lula, who was at Santa Cruz, [...]
Brazil’s Labour Ministry said on Monday that Brazil’s economy had added more payroll jobs in May than expected and a record number of payroll jobs were expected to be added in June.
In total the number of payroll jobs added in May come to 298,041, which is the fifth straight month of increases and is a [...]
Thirty two percent of all energy produced in Brazil is from biomass. Of this, firewood and charcoal account for 11.4% of the total. Brazil produced about ten million tons of charcoal, of which 84% was used in the steel industry for the production of iron, 8% for residential use and 8% for other activities. [...]
