Tapajos River News

A severe drought choking major rivers in the Amazon rainforest has disrupted ship traffic near the region's biggest city and pushed up costs for northern shipping routes, raising risks for corn exports in coming months.The unusual heat and dryness, linked to the mass deaths of fish and river dolphins, has already limited local communities'access to food and drinking water, leading the federal government to set up a humanitarian task force. Officials are now warning the thinning rivers could disrupt grains exports in the region."There is concern about shipping part of the corn harvest…

Logistics firm Hidrovias do Brasil plans to start exporting grains from a new terminal with up to 6.5 million tonnes annual capacity in the Brazilian Amazon in July, serving international grain merchants, CEO Bruno Serapião said.   Noble Agri and Holland's Nidera, both controlled by Chinese food giant COFCO, as well as Multigrain, a Brazilian subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui, signed long-term contracts to use the terminal on the Tapajos river in Para state, he said in an interview.     (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Caroline Stauffer)

China and Brazil sealed their expanding commercial partnership on Thursday with a $5 billion credit line for Brazilian miner Vale and the purchase of 60 passenger jets from Brazilian planemaker Embraer. In a raft of energy, finance and industry accords signed before presidents Xi Jinping and Dilma Rousseff, the two nations agreed to join forces to build railways to help Brazil cut its infrastructure deficit and feed China's appetite for commodities. Trade between China and Brazil soared to $83.3 billion last year from $3.2 billion in 2002, with iron ore, soy and oil making up the bulk of Brazilian exports, making China the South American nation's biggest trade partner.

Two new grain - and oilseed-loading terminals have been inaugurated at Miritituba and Barcarena in the northern Brazil state of Para. Together, they are expected to increase the country's export capacity by 4 million tons per year. This year, the new terminals will handle about 2.5 million tons, mostly soy, and they are expected to be operating at full capacity next year. Brazil's soy harvests have been growing each year, overloading highways leading to the jammed southern ports of Santos and Paranagua and slowing exports. The new terminals will allow some of the grain to be diverted away from the crowded southern ports by taking advantage…