|
 Total sales of new vehicles in December 2008, in Brazil, grew 11.54% compared with November, according to figures released January 6 by the Brazilian National Federation of Motor Vehicle Distributors (Fenabrave). In December, 345,447 units were sold, as against 309,712 in the previous month.
In comparison with December 2007, when 413,143 new vehicles were sold, there was a decrease of 16.39%.
In the accumulated result for 2008, 4,849,497 units were sold, as against 4,248,275 in the previous year, growth of 14.15%. The figures include automobiles, light commercial vehicles, trucks, buses, motorcycles and highway implements.
Steel
Brazil produced 32.1 million tons of bulk steel from January to November, an increase of 4.2% when compared to the same period last year. This according to the Brazilian Steel Institute (IBS). The performance, according to the organization, reflects the strong growth of the steel market up to September.
In November alone, the country produced 2.32 million tons of bulk steel, 19.8% less than in October. According to the IBS, the reduction was due to total or partial stops at mills for scheduled maintenance services. The stops, according to the organization, were scheduled having in mind the slowing of the steel market at the end of the year.
Production of laminates grew 0.6% in the year and reached 23.8 million tons. In November, the Brazilian smelters produced 1.73 million tons, a reduction of 26% when compared to October.
A total of 20.9 million tons of ironworks products were traded on the domestic market up to November, growth of 10.6% over the same period in 2007. Sales of laminates totaled 1.4 million tons in November, 26% less than in October.
Exports, in turn, generated US$ 6.82 billion from January to September, growth of 22.5% over the same period last year. According to the IBS, revenues show the heated demand in the first months of 2008. In terms of volume, however, shipments dropped 10,5% in the year and totaled 7.94 million tons.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.