São Paulo – Brazil’s federal government announced a new National Fertilizer Plan. A decree made public early this week on the Official Gazette mandates the establishment of a work group to devise the strategy.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply said the effort is intended to increase manufacturing and availability of domestically made fertilizer, to minimize reliance on imported product, and to add competitiveness to Brazilian agribusiness products in international markets. According to the Ministry, Brazil relies on imports for some 60% of its fertilizer needs.

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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The Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA) forecast estimates a domestic per capita consumption of 47 kilos, up 4.4% from in 2020 (45 kilos), but on the export front, no numbers are stated. However, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates a year-on-year increase of 2.1% in Brazilian exports compared 2020. Last year, Brazil exported 4,23 million tonnes of chicken meat.

 

By Daniel Azevedo via Poultry World

 

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São Paulo – Brazil ran a USD 6.1 billion surplus in trade with the Arab League in 2020. The surplus is the difference between exports and imports. The result accounts for 12.2% of the USD 50 billion all-time record surplus Brazil reached throughout the year. It’s also a 16.2% increase from the surplus reached in Brazil-Arab League trade in 2019, as per figures from the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce(ABCC).

The entity reports that Brazil’s exports to the bloc of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) generated USD 11.47 billion in revenue, down 6.3% from 2019. The decline, however, was lower than in other relevant trade partnerships, such as the United States (-23.7%) and Mercosur (-17.7%).

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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January 26 (Renewables Now) – Brazil’s competition regulator CADE has okayed the acquisition of a 158.5-MW wind portfolio by local power producer AES Brasil (B3:TIET11), formerly AES Tiete Energia SA.

The deal, approved without restrictions, is valued at BRL 806 million (USD 147.4m/EUR 121.4m), including BRL 277 million of net debt, AES Brasil said previously.

 

By Lucas Morais via Renewables Now

 

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SINGAPORE, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Southeast Asia’s Sea Ltd, is scaling up its operations in Brazil and evaluating the long-term potential of Latin American markets, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Shopee, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia according to market researchers, launched a small presence in Brazil in late 2019 as a pilot initiative of its cross-border team.

 

By Fanny Potkin via Yahoo Finance

 

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BRASILIA, Jan 25 (Reuters) – The outlook for Brazilian interest rates over the next two years rose to their highest in many months, a central bank survey of economists showed on Monday, following the bank’s decision last week to drop its ‘forward guidance’ pledge to keep them low for a long time.

The average forecast of the benchmark Selic rate at the end of this year rose to 3.50% from 3.25%, and the end-2022 forecast rose to 5.00% from 4.75%, according to the latest weekly ‘FOCUS’ survey of around 100 economists.

 

By Jamie McGeever via Yahoo Finance

 

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Renewables company Engie has signed a contract with Siemens Gamesa to supply supply turbines for a wind farm in Brazil.

Under the contract, the company will supply 70 of its SG 5.8-170 turbines with OptimaFlex technology. These will generate energy at the 434MW Santo Agostinho wind farm in north-east Rio Grande do Norte.

 

Via Power Technology

 

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Senators are likely to consider a new round of financial help for vulnerable Brazilians as soon as a new head of the upper house is elected in February, with one of the candidates for the job defending an urgent discussion about the theme and another saying she wouldn’t oppose the idea either.

Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, the front-runner in the race, on Wednesday said that if elected he would immediately start a discussion about what to do with this “part of the population living in extreme poverty, whose situation was aggravated by the pandemic.”

 

By Samy Adghirni and Simone Preissler Iglesias

 

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Leonardo de Azevedo decided to move to the countryside with his wife and two small children in May. The family ended up in a rural area, Lumiar, near the city of Nova Friburgo, about 150km (93mi) from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, where Azevedo works in the public prosecutor’s office. The idea was to get closer to nature, allow the children more freedom and seek greater security against the pandemic.

But the region had no broadband internet, leaving him dependent on mobile internet that came with speed and data limits. And, when his son had an accident and had to go to A&E, “we found out that in Nova Friburgo no service accepted our health plan”; they were forced to travel back to Rio de Janeiro for treatment.

 

By Raphael Tsavkko Garcia via BBC

 

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The Brazilian government estimates that more than 60% of the country’s connected population – about 84 million people – is using digital citizen services.

The latest numbers from the Digital Government Secretariat (DGS) at the Ministry of Economy are based on research from the National Internet Steering Committee, which estimates that currently 134 million Brazilians have access to the Internet.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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Brazil’s stock market is gearing up for another rush of flotations in 2021, after an army of new investors helped spur the strongest year for initial public offerings in more than a decade.

An iron ore miner, a crematorium operator and an online furniture seller are among a list of 41 companies that have announced their intention to debut on São Paulo’s B3 exchange, which in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic chalked up 28 IPOs last year — the biggest number since 2007’s all-time record of 64.

 

By Michael Pooler via Financial Times

 

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January 20 (Renewables Now) – Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) has approved financing of BRL 941.6 million (USD 177m/EUR 146m) for the construction of a 40-MW biomass power plant and several upgrades planned by Grupo Sao Martinho SA (BVMF:SMTO3).

Named UTE Sao Martinho Bioenergia, the new biomass plant will use sugarcane bagasse as fuel. Located in the municipality of Pradopolis, Sao Paulo state, Sao Martinho should be able to generate some 210,000 MWh per year.

 

By Lucas Morais via Renewables Now

 

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January 20 (Renewables Now) – Brazil, the world’s second-largest producer of hydroelectric power, has an energy problem. While hydropower accounted for 70% of the country’s electricity generation in 2018, its primary source of renewable power is becoming less effective than it once was. Brazil needs to urgently diversify its energy mix to counter the power outages that are becoming a feature of daily life.

 

By Jamie MacDonald-Murray via Renewables Now

 

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January 19 (Renewables Now) – Brazilian solar energy firm Solarian Energy announced recently it has commenced the commercial operation of a 4.9-MW solar plant in Sao Paulo state.

The UFV Salto de Pirapora II, as the photovoltaic (PV) plant is named, is the company’s first to use solar trackers. It required an investment of BRL 17 million (USD 3.2m/EUR 2.6m) made in partnership with an unnamed foreign fund.

 

By Lucas Morais via Renewables Now

 

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São Paulo – Brazilian health regulator Anvisa approved emergency use of CoronaVac and the Oxford vaccine in Brazil. The first is produced by São Paulo’s Butantan medical center that is partnered with China’s Sinovac, while the latter was developed by AstraZeneca and the Oxford University with federally funded Fiocruz institute.

The decision was disclosed on Sunday (17) and, minutes later, Monica Calazans (pictured above), a nurse in São Paulo’s Emílio Ribas infectology hospital, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the Butantan’s vaccine, the Federal Nursing Service Council reported.

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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New Delhi: Brazil is all set to become the first country in the world that will receive two million doses of Covishield from India next week that will be flown directly from Mumbai to Rio de Janeiro via a special flight, ThePrint has learnt.

The Jair Bolsonaro administration will be procuring the vaccine at a “special rate” under a deal that was finalised between the Brazilian government and Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) earlier this month, diplomatic sources told ThePrint. SII has manufactured the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine in India.

 

By Nayanima Basu via The Print

 

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SAO PAULO, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Brazilian bank Banco BTG Pactual SA plans to raise at least 2 billion reais ($377 million) in a share offering, a securities filing showed on Thursday.

The bank will sell 22,222,222 new shares, comprising one common share and two preferred shares, in the follow-on. It may raise the offering by 25% depending on demand.

 

By Carolina Mandl via Yahoo Finance

 

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Nordex has obtained the accreditation in Brazil for the N163/5.X wind turbine model from National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).

Wind farm developers in Brazil will be able to purchase N163/5.X wind turbines using the credit line known as FINAME, as well as other similar financing lines that use the BNDES accreditation system to define local content.

 

Via Renews.Biz

 

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Sea freight on the China-Brazil route has soared and reached an unprecedented US$ 10,000 per TEU, according to importers and shipping companies operating in the port of Santos.

”It is a record high; I had never seen freight reach that amount,” said Luigi Ferrini, Senior Vice President of Hapag-Lloyd in Brazil. A year ago, the cost of this same route was in the range of US$ 2,000 per TEU.

 

Via Hellenic Shipping News

 

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DUBLIN, Jan. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The “The Brazilian Food Delivery Market, 2020: A Benchmark of the Top 8 Companies” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

Brazil’s digital transformation has been greatly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in several types of solutions being launched into the food delivery market. The increasing use of smartphones and new technologies across various regions of the country, including small cities with few resources, has made food delivery services a routine element of the Brazilian lifestyle.

 

Via Cision PR Newswire

 

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It is now time for foreign private issuers (FPIs) to prepare their annual reports on Form 20-F. For companies with a calendar year-end, the Form 20-F must be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) by April 30, 2021.

To help you with the preparation of this filing, consider the following recent developments, trends and topics that may be areas of focus of the SEC during the 2021 review process.

Read full article here.

On December 30, 2020, the National Energy Policy Council (“CNPE”)  published Resolution No. 14/2020 (“Resolution No. 14”), which establishes guidelines for the marketing of biodiesel in the national territory and provides for other measures.

Resolution No. 14 establishes that all biofuel necessary to comply with the mandatory percentage set forth by Law No. 13,033/2014 must be contracted by means of a marketing model, replacing the public auctions. The National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (“ANP”) shall be responsible for regulating the biodiesel marketing model, which became effective January 1, 2020.

 

São Paulo – Brazil’s industrial output climbed for the seventh month in a row, up 1.2% in November from October 2020. But year to date through November, it was down by 5.5%. In the twelve months through November, it declined by 5.2%. Despite the recent positive outcomes, industrial output is down 13.9% from the peak in May 2011.

Figures from the Monthly Industrial Survey made public on Friday (8) in Rio de Janeiro by statistic agency IBGE shows that the industry was up 2.8% from November 2019.

 

Via Brazil-Arab News Agency

 

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Dear Friend of the Firm,

We are pleased to inform you of the inauguration of our firm’s Family Law and Wealth Planning practice area.

Heading the practice area are our new partners Daniella Almeida and Felipe Ragusa, who departed from the much lauded São Paulo Family Law and Wealth Planning law firm Laiz Amaral de Andrade Advogados to join Almeida Advogados.

 

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MadeiraMadeira, the Brazilian answer to Wayfair or Ikea, is now worth $1 billion after raising $190 million in late stage financing from investors led by SoftBank’s Latin American investment fund and the Brazilian public and private investment firm, Dynamo.

An online marketplace specializing in home products, MadeiraMadeira offers roughly 300,000 products so customers can build, furnish, renovate and decorate their homes.

 

By Jonathan Schieber via Tech Crunch

 

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Although the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines may be more important to certain employers (such as those in health care), employers in all  industries should monitor the development of the Government’s vaccine roll-out program, as the vaccine concerns public health. In this Legal Update, we answer some of the questions that employers may have.

 

By Aline Fidelis and Vinicius Rodrigues de Castro via Mondaq

 

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BRASILIA, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Brazil’s services sector expanded in December for a fourth straight month and at a slightly faster pace than the month before, a purchasing managers’ survey showed on Wednesday, although underlying data painted a more mixed picture.

Services have lagged manufacturing and industry in the rebound from the COVID-19 crisis but have recently shown signs that the bounceback is underway, a view strengthened by hopes a vaccine will soon be available.

 

By Jamie McGeever via Reuters India

 

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January 5 (Renewables Now) – Brazilian power sector watchdog Aneel has given the green light to the start of commercial operations of 260 MW of wind parks owned by local units of Italian firm Enel Green Power SpA.

Aneel’s approval allows the company to generate power from the EOL Ventos de Santa Angela 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 14 parks. These plants are situated in the cities of Queimada Nova and Lagoa do Barro, Piaui state.

 

By Lucas Morais via Renewables Now

 

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Act digital is a Brazilian digital transformation company counting 1,700+ devs, architects, designers that serve U.S. clients. They specialize in helping companies to create digital solutions from an idea or vision to business reality in record time by leveraging their return on experience on digital development.

They simplify complexity as they believe digital should bring simplicity and technology should be affordable.

Learn more here.

“With the financial problems of our competitors, Aldo became the largest PV product distributor in Brazil this year”, said the president of Brazil’s largest PV product distributor and system integrator, Aldo Pereira Teixeira, in an interview with pv magazine. “Currently, our market share is around 35 to 36 percent.”

Aldo currently focuses on the sale of residential, commercial, and industrial photovoltaic systems and only 3 percent of the company’s revenue is concentrated on projects with a power greater than 1 MW, in which remote self-consumption is a priority. The situation of distributed generation in Brazil is still very promising, Pereira Teixeira added. “Brazil has 89 million consumer units and only 330,000 photovoltaic systems connected to the grid; we have a huge space to keep growing.”

 

By Emiliano Bellini via pv magazine

 

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BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -Brazil made a diplomatic push on Monday to guarantee an Indian-made shipment of British drugmaker AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, hoping to avoid export restrictions that could delay immunizations during the world’s second-deadliest outbreak.

In parallel, Brazil’s private clinics struck a preliminary deal for an alternative injection made by India’s Bharat Biotech despite a lack of public results from late-stage trials.

 

By Ricardo Brito and Pedro Fonseca via Reuters

 

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An agreement has been signed between Brazil and the UK to accelerate digital transformation and innovation in public services delivery in the Latin American country.

Under the memorandum of understanding signed on December 29 by Acting British Ambassador to Brazil Liz Davidson and Brazilian digital secretary Luis Felipe Monteiro, the countries will be working together until March 2023.

 

By Angelica Mari via ZD Net

 

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