Brazil and India rated as preferred places to invest

September 28th, 2010 Posted in Brazil, India, Investing
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According to a recent Bloomberg poll, Brazil is tied with China as the most preferred place to invest, and India follows close behind in third place.

From Bloomberg:

The U.S. has fallen behind emerging markets in Brazil, China and India as the preferred place to invest, a Bloomberg survey shows, though the world’s largest economy still ranks highest of all major developed countries.

The U.S. ranked first three months ago in the last quarterly Bloomberg Global Poll. Along with the slipping perceptions of the U.S. markets in the most recent survey, conducted Sept. 16-17, poll respondents say the Federal Reserve is likely to take further steps to try to bolster the economy.

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India eyes strong trade ties with LatAm

September 27th, 2010 Posted in India, Latin America
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FinancialExpress

According to the commerce ministry officials, India is looking forward to sign an FTA with Peru as the first step of engagement. It is also eyeing similar trade agreements with some other Latin American countries. “Latin America is a key bloc for us. So far our trade has been restricted to Brazil and Argentina but there are other key markets which we are exploring,” an official said.

The government is looking forward to include newer Latin American countries in the focus market scheme (FMS) and announce tax breaks for Indian exporters. India is also expected to reduce import duties on a set of imports from Latin America. According to a report published by Inter-American Development Bank, agricultural exports from Latin America attract an import duty of 65% in India.

The initiative has been taken up by Jyotiraditya Scindia, minister of state for commerce. In an earlier interview with FE, Scindia had said that Latin America housed a set of developing economies which held a lot of potential of trade with India. “In our foreign trade policy (FTP) announcement, we have steadily shifted the focus to developing countries because it is from these areas that the growth will come,” Scindia said. Earlier this month Scindia led a delegation to Peru scouting opportunities for enhanced trade between the two countries.

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Agriculture Takes Center Stage for Prominent Investors Jim Rogers and Michael Burry

September 23rd, 2010 Posted in Agriculture, Commodities, Latin America, water
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| Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Michael Burry, one of the stars of Michael Lewis’ The Big Short, labeled agriculture as one of his top trades. Burry is a noted value investor who earned strong returns as the Tech Bubble collapsed, and even more out-sized returns on his short bet against the housing market in the time preceding the subprime collapse. Burry provided this insight into his latest trade:

“I believe that agriculture land — productive agricultural land with water on site — will be very valuable in the future….I’ve put a good amount of money into that.”

This weekend on his personal blog, Jim Rogers wrote a quick little note about how “Asia will drive agriculture commodities higher“:

There`s 3 billion people in Asia and most of them have not had a very good standard of living in the past 200 years. That is changing and changing very rapidly. They are going to eat more, they are going to wear more clothes.

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Brazil port sugar delays seen easing next season; rail investment possibilities

September 23rd, 2010 Posted in Brazil, Commodities
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Opportunity for Indian private investment in building out Brazil’s rail infrastructure. Also planned regulatory reform to revive idled capacity and lower freight costs will help.  In a country like Brazil, 3 times the size of India, the fact that about 75% of freight is hauled by road shows the huge opportunities. It costs an average $27 per ton to transport goods by rail, less than a third of the $117 per ton cost by road. Brazil’s competitive position in many commodity exports will dramatically improve as a result.
ANALYSIS-ThomsonReuters

Investment in Brazilian ports and higher forecasts for Indian output are set to prevent a repeat of severe loading delays for the new sugar crop next year, but terminals will be pressured to meet booming demand.

A huge line-up of vessels at Brazilian ports has triggered lengthy delays in loadings of sugar cargoes, contributing to a surge in sugar futures to seven-month highs this week, above the psychological 25 cents a lb resistance level.
“The Brazilian industry is going to continue to grow sugar production, and there will be a need for logistics to match that,” said Toby Cohen, head of research at London-based sugar merchant Czarnikow.

Brazilian port officials say improvements in infrastructure and new investments in logistics will improve the capacity of Brazil to meet its increasingly onerous export commitments.

Brazil has been loading up to 2.6 million tonnes of sugar a month this year, up from 2.2 million a year ago, underlining the strength of physical demand, especially in the June-July period when Brazil is the predominant supplier of the world’s sugar.

“Brazil’s projected export growth will likely further expose the underlying inadequacies of the sector,” said Cole Martin, commodities analyst with Business Monitor International. “Steps towards private investment in the country’s ports have generally been lacking.” A big logistical problem has been transport access to major sugar ports such as Santos.

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Going for gold in Colombia: Good-Fortune Forces in Alignment

September 22nd, 2010 Posted in colombia, Commodities, Economics - Indicators, Policy and Trends
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Gold: Museo de Oro, Bogota, Colombia
 IBT Commodities & Futures

one has to look at the currencies of where the company is producing its gold and one has to look at what we like to call GARP, or basic “growth at a reasonable price,” in our stock selection model. As I indicated, we focus on historical and social economic cycles, applying both statistical and fundamental models, including GARP, to identify those companies with superior metrics.

TGR: Can you share with us trends in your fund today-either trends in countries, because of the currency play, or trends in companies that represent good GARP?

FH: I think the best country right now for value with government policies-and I’ve met with the ministers and the new president-is Colombia. The best performing stock last year on the Toronto Stock Exchange was Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (TSX:PRE; BVC:PREC), which has oil in Colombia. Government polices attracted capital. This was spectacular. It was up 600%. Even year-to-date it’s had great performance.

The Colombian government has made a real push to improve the gold mining industry too. There’s been a move away from artisanal miners  towards high-quality mechanized mining. It still employs thousands and thousands of people, but you won’t see the environmental disasters that have taken place previously with a bunch of those small miners that have no compliance for quality. So I think Colombia is a country that is spectacular.

TGR: Any particular gold companies that come to mind?

FH: A big holding for us is Medoro Resources Ltd. (TSX.V:MRS). If you take a look at the size of Marmato, their gold deposit. . .it’s so inexpensive as a producer and for reserves in the ground and the whole consolidation taking place. Another one is Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX.V: GCM), which just went public. Those two companies combined have a $600 million market cap, but also 16 million ounces of production. So I think the rushes going into other countries are going to start to show up in places like Colombia.

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India, Mexico, and Brazil Embrace “Design Thinking”

September 22nd, 2010 Posted in Brazil, India, Media and Entertainment, Mexico
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For sure India needs more design thinking in products and services; with many engineers running the show, good design, sadly, is  thought of an expense.
Nussbaum: | Co.Design

If you’re a business or an NGO with an operation in Asia or Latin America, where do you go when you want some serious local design thinking? You might start by calling my colleague and friend Carlos Teixeira, a Brazilian-born assistant professor at the School of Design Strategies, in Parsons The New School for Design. Carlos is speeding the transfer of design thinking expertise by building his own network called NODES.NODES connects Parsons to Idiom Design and Consulting, a key design thinking-based consultancy in India. Idiom founder Sonia Manchanda is a close friend of Carlos and recently helped launch SPREAD to spread the word of design thinking in her country. Here’s what the Idiom Web site says about it:

“SPREAD was hence born as the design outreach program of Idiom. Since its induction three years ago SPREAD has successfully worked with various institutions and business houses conducting workshops, seminar programs and lectures to make design a weapon to transform and grow our economy and to better plan our lives and environment. SPREAD makes design thinking, tools and processes accessible to design and business students, practitioners and even school children.”

Today, along the NODES network, one can see the thinking between the Parsons design knowledge network lab and Idiom’s SPREAD project. As NODES expands to other consultancies and schools, Carlos expects increasing knowledge to flow South to South among consultancies in Asia, Latin America and Africa as well as between South to North.

Business is beginning to follow. European and U.S. corporations are increasingly using local innovation consultancies for their local business. And other emerging market countries are starting to hire consultancies schooled in design thinking. Idiom was recently hired by companies in Sri Lanka who have heard of its strategic design capabilities and Brazil-based Crama has new business in Angola for the same reason. Mexico-based Insitum has opened offices in the U.S., Brazil and Colombia, and works in Canada.

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Soybeans Rise for Third Day on Concern About Brazilian, Argentine Sowing

September 21st, 2010 Posted in Agriculture, Argentina, Brazil, India
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Bloomberg

“Soy prices are progressing significantly, boosted by weather conditions in Argentina and Brazil,” Paris-based farm adviser Agritel said on its website today. “Mato Grosso lacks water and planting is being delayed, and a return of the rains will be necessary for correct germination of the crops.” Brazil is the world’s second-largest grower of soybeans after the U.S., and Argentina ranks third.

The corn harvest in India, Asia’s second-biggest grower, may exceed 20 million metric tons in the year to June 2011, beating the 19.73 million-ton record in 2009 and increasing exports, after above-normal rains aided crops, Atul Chaturvedi, president of Adani Enterprises Ltd., said yesterday. Adani is the country’s biggest non-state trader of farm goods.

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Palm, Soybean Oils Purchases by India to Reach Record – 9 million tons, for Fourth Year

September 21st, 2010 Posted in Agriculture, Argentina, Brazil, India
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Every year for the coming decade there will be at least a growing shortfall of 5,00,000 tons each each year. India’s edible oil import bill is next only to its crude oil import bill.
Bloomberg

India, the top buyer of vegetable oils after China, may import a record quantity of soybean and palm oils for a fourth year as growing population and incomes increase demand for processed foods, a processors’ group said.

Purchases may climb to 9.5 million metric tons in the year starting Nov. 1, compared with 9 million tons this season, Ashok Sethia, president of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, said in a phone interview from Kolkata today.

“Imports will need to increase by a minimum 4 to 5 percent annually to meet demand from a growing population in a booming economy,” said Sethia, who is due to speak at a three-day event in Mumbai starting Sept. 24. “Purchases can be more or less depending on prices and the local oilseed crops.”

Imports by India surged 64 percent to a record 1.07 million tons in August from 650,603 tons a year earlier, the association said Sept. 14. Purchases in the November-August period climbed 5 percent to 7.45 million tons from a year ago, it said. [India] relies on imports to meet almost half its annual cooking fat demand.

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Expanded cooperation between Mercosur and India

September 21st, 2010 Posted in India, Latin America
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In an effort to further increase trade between Mercosur and India, representatives from both sides will soon meet to expand the number of products covered by the Agreement on Fixed Tariff Preferences (AFTP).

From MercoPress:

“Teams from both sides have been meeting and we pledged to develop a list of new products to be included in the agreement in November this year,” Scindia told a press conference after the India-Brazil Business Meeting in Sao Paulo.

The Agreement on Fixed Tariff Preferences (APTF) between India and Mercosur comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay entered into force in 2009, aiming at creating a free trade area.

The APTF agreement, which currently covers import and export of 452 products, is to gradually increase the categories of products with special taxation.

The extension of the agreement will be of strategic importance to boost trade relations between the countries involved, Scindia said.

Trade volume between Mercosur and India should reach 17 billion US dollars in 2012 and 30 billion dollars in 2030, according to estimates of the Indian minister.

Roberto Giannetti, director of the Department of International Relations of the Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo, said free trade between Mercosur and India would also be beneficial to Brazil.

“We’re very interested in a Mercosur-India free trade agreement. Brazil needs investments to be made in several areas and may also collaborate with India, especially in the supply of food and energy,” he said.

Brazil-India trade increased from 1 billion dollars in 2003 to 4.7 billion dollars in 2008, according to the Brazilian government.

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Gaturro – a film based on an Argentine cartoon with Indian animation studio collaboration

September 20th, 2010 Posted in Argentina, Arts, Culture and Society
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Gulf Times

Gaturro, an animated feature film produced in Kerala has topped box office collections in Argentina, where it is creating ripples for the second consequent week of its release, according to reports.

The Toonz Animation India’s 3D animated feature film topped box office figures in the Latin American nation a week into its premiere on September 9. The Spanish version of the film was released both in normal 3D format and in stereoscopic format.

Based on the famous Argentinean cartoon strip, the 90-minute film, a product of Indian creativity and technology combined with Argentinean humour and imagination has been co-produced with Illusions Studios Argentina, at a cost of $7mn.

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