Brazil

• Wednesday, July 6th 2011 - 15:35 UTC

  Brazil 2010/11 soy crop larger than estimated but strong Real eats into profits

  

  Brazil's 2010-11 soy crop was larger than previously estimated, as higher productivity and a greater area of land planted with the oilseed resulted in record output, agricultural consultancy Celeres reported this week.

• Tuesday, July 5th 2011 - 15:44 UTC

  Uruguay and Brazil move closer to a partnership in wind power projects

  

  Uruguay’s state owned power company UTE moved closer to linking with Brazil’s Eletrobras for wind projects after its board gave the go-ahead to explore a partnership.

• Tuesday, July 5th 2011 - 06:08 UTC

  President Rousseff relations with 10 party coalition remain strained

  

  The six-month old administration of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s is again under strain following on her strong character reactions, thus casting doubts about the passing of her legislative agenda, which is already considerably delayed.

• Tuesday, July 5th 2011 - 05:44 UTC

  Toyota Mercosur temporarily closing plants due to lack of parts

  

  Toyota, the world's biggest automaker said Monday it will temporarily halt work at factories in Brazil and Argentina due to the lack of parts from Japan after the massive March quake and tsunami.

• Monday, July 4th 2011 - 05:45 UTC

  Spanish-Chinese group discover oil in Brazil’s pre-salt cluster, 6.851 metres deep

  

  Spanish oil and gas group Repsol YPF announced last week that its joint venture with China's Sinopec Group had made a new discovery of good quality oil in Brazilian ultra-deep water.

• Monday, July 4th 2011 - 05:12 UTC

  Brazilian government continues to subsidize loans to big corporations

  

  Brazil's state development bank, BNDES, is lending to companies at the lowest rate relative to the country's benchmark in two years, undercutting President Dilma Rousseff's efforts to curb inflation, revealed the Sao Paulo financial press.

• Monday, July 4th 2011 - 04:32 UTC

  Brazilian government conditions support for major retail chain merger

  

  BNDES bank will not put up the 2.4 billion US dollars it pledged for the merger of Brazil's biggest retailers, Grupo Pao de Acucar and France's Carrefour, unless France’s Casino is on board, bank president Luciano Coutinho said in a local magazine.

• Monday, July 4th 2011 - 04:23 UTC

  Brazilian Transport ministry suspends four top officials on corruption claims

  

  Four of the top officials in Brazil's Transportation Ministry have been temporarily suspended from their posts after a magazine reported on fraud they allegedly committed in several bidding contests on public works.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:52 UTC

  British Gas doubles oil estimates off the coast of Brazil to 8 million boe

  

  Reserve estimates in the Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil have an upside potential of 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent, an energy company in London said.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:46 UTC

  Desforestation in Brazil doubles, in anticipation of an amnesty for illegal logging

  

  Deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon, the world’s biggest rain forest, more than doubled last month as farmers become more confident they’ll be granted amnesty for illegal logging.