Leonardo Goy News

Brazil will announce on Monday that it will auction seven additional port operating licenses as part of its privatization efforts, a government source told Reuters on Monday. The licenses relate to port terminals in the northeastern states of Paraíba and Pernambuco as well as in the state of São Paulo in southeast Brazil, the source said, requesting anonymity because the auctions have not yet been made public. The government plans to auction several port licenses in 2018, Reuters reported on March 1…

Brazil has shelved a planned railway to ship commodities destined for China through Peru as it was too costly and faced "absurd" engineering challenges, a Brazilian official said. The 5,000-km (3,300-mile) railway over the Andes to the Pacific coast, announced during a visit by President Xi Jinping in 2014, was meant to speed up soybean and iron ore exports to China at a lower cost by bypassing the Panama Canal. But at an estimated cost of $80 billion, the railway would not be commercially viable if it transported just commodities and not more valuable goods, Jorge Arbache, vice planning minister for international affairs, told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday. Peru also opposed the planned route that cut through one of the country's most important nature reserves, he said.

Brazil's Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Thursday before the Senate's Agriculture Committee that he would oppose a government proposal to tax farm exports as a way to cover a growing deficit in the country's social security program.   The president's Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper published on Thursday the tax was part of a proposal to reform Brazil's social security program. (Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Writing by Reese Ewing)

A plan to attract private investment to Brazil's strained port infrastructure is even more important in the face of federal budget cuts that will curb public investment, Brazilian Ports Minister Edinho Araújo said in an interview. Brazil, which has seen exports of iron ore, soybeans, sugar, coffee and beef soar, is planning to lease 29 public terminals, including at the country's largest port in Santos and in the northern state of Para, to private companies under a 2012 law. The move, currently blocked by a federal audit court, could attract 4.9 billion reais ($1.6 billion) of private investment and increase port capacity by 47 million tonnes, Araujo told Reuters on Monday.

Striking truckers lifted their blockade of dozens of highways in Brazil after police began fining and arresting protesters, though strike organizers said they had no plans to end their stoppage now in its 10th day. Road blockages were reported at 59 locations across six states on Friday down from the Thursday count of 88 road blocks, according to the latest report from highway police. Most protesting drivers rejected an initial government offer and negotiations were not scheduled to resume until March 10. Even so, a spokesman for Paranagua port said 514 soy trucks had arrived on Friday, up from 255 trucks at the same time on Thursday. Brazil is the world's No. 2 soy producer and a top global supplier.

Brazil's state-run Petrobras will probably not meet its oil and gas production target for 2014 because of continued delays in the startup of new offshore oil platforms, a government source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Monday. Petrobras set a 2014 goal of increasing output by 7.5 percent, plus or minus one percentage point, hoping to break a string of missed targets caused by declining output from its largest existing fields and delays in new areas. (Reporting by Roberto Samora and Leonardo Goy; Writing by Jeb Blount; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

The board of Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras, approved the exploration of new oil and gas fields in February, Planning Minister Miriam Belchior said on Friday, countering criticism by some board members that they were not previously informed of a 15 billion reais ($6.8 billion) oil-rights deal. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, on Tuesday was awarded the rights to explore four fields off Brazil's southeast coast believed to contain an estimated 5 billion to 9 billion barrels of oil. In return, it will pay the government 15 billion reais through 2018, with 2 billion reais going to the Treasury's coffers this year. The cash will help the government with its fiscal goals amid a weakening economy.

Brazil will export more crude oil in 2014 than it will import, Magda Chambriard, director general of Brazil's oil regulator, the ANP, said on Tuesday. If her prediction comes true, the oil-trade surplus will be Brazil's first since 2012, when the country exported $20.3 billion of crude oil and imported $13.4 billion, according to Brazil's commerce and trade ministry. Brazil had an oil trade deficit in 2013, importing $16.3 billion of crude oil and exporting $13 billion, the ministry said on its website. As most of Brazil's oil output is heavy crude oil and its refineries operate best with light crude, Brazil exports domestic oil to buy lighter, imported grades.