The Swedish-Finland group Stora Enso and Chile’s Arauco confirmed to the Uruguayan government their intention of building a pulp mill in the country with an investment in the range of two billion US dollars reports the Montevideo daily Ultimas Noticias.
The Argentine government strongly repudiated on Friday a report from the Environmental Board of Uruguay saying Argentina had adulterated information referred to the pulp mill dispute submitted to the International Court at The Hague.
The world's largest cruise liner began Friday its maiden voyage to Florida, gliding out from a shipyard in Finland with an amphitheatre, basketball courts and an ice rink on board. The 16-deck Oasis of the Seas spans 360 metres from bow to stern. Its 2,700 cabins can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew.
Relations between Argentina and Chile are going through an optimum moment and once we drill through the Andes, “ghosts of the past will definitively have gone”, said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during the first of her two day visit to Chile.
“Central America and the Caribbean, historical sugar-producing economies where the sugar-ethanol infrastructure already has a foundation, labor costs are low, and the political conditions are more or less stable– offers the best near-term potential for large-scale sugarcane ethanol production. This is a market opportunity which Cuba, with the longest experience of sugar–ethanol and sugarcane derivates production in the region, is positioned to take advantage of”.
A delegation of Chinese private businessmen met this week with Paraguay’s president Fernando Lugo with the purpose of expressing their interest in investing in the country, more precisely in the manufacture of cellular phones, batteries and battery chargers.
Brazil’s main meat processor JBS praised the government for lowering a local tax that will ultimately benefit consumers and farmers. JBS is also in the process of becoming the world’ leader in animal protein food by taking over US chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride and merging with Brazil’s Bertin SA.
French bank Credit Agricole officially announced this week it had begun consultations to sell its banking interests in Uruguay where it operates under the name of Credit Uruguay.
The final pieces are falling into place for “Oasis of the Seas” with the ship's future owners Royal Caribbean and homeport Fort Lauderdale in Florida State poised to introduce the world to the largest cruise ship ever built.
Uruguay signed on Friday the first risk contract for the exploration of hydrocarbons in the north of the country, the first ever of its kind. US company Schuepbach Energy from Dallas will be looking for possible traces of natural gas in lutite sedimentary rocks during a two year period in an area of 10.000 square kilometres.