June 17, 2013

Abel Halpern June 17, 2013

EXCLUSIVE Trade with Japan and Korea down in 2012
Japanese exports to Paraguay declined 47.3 percent last year

While Latin America’s trade with China often dominates headlines, trade with Asia’s other major economies, Japan and South Korea, is also a major force in the hemisphere. In 2012, bilateral trade with Japan reached $67 billion, while bilateral trade with Korea reached $51 billion. But in both cases this represents a decrease over 2011, Latin Business Chronicle reports.

Brazil's Votarantim expected to raise $4.9 billion in public offering
Move will be watched worldwide as a gauge of investor sentiment towards emerging markets

Capital raised this year from new listings on Brazil’s stock market is set to top $10.6 billion this week, the highest January to June total in the country’s history. Brazil’s largest cement producer, Votorantim Cimentos, is scheduled to raise as much as $4.9 bilion on Wednesday in an initial public offering The Financial Times reports.

YPF to join Venezuela in gas project
Gas fields expected to hold 7 trillion cubic feet

Argentina's state energy company YPF will join Venezuela's offshore Deltana Platform natural gas project along with state oil company PDVSA and U.S. oil major Chevron, Venezuela's oil minister Rafael Ramírez (left), said yesterday. The project plans to extract and export natural gas, The Buenos Aires Herald reports.

Paraguay expected to have region's most stable growth in 2013
Country's agriculture is recovering from a severe drought last year

Paraguay’s economic growth this year should outstrip that of other countries in the region, according to financial analyst Santiago Zavattiero. “Paraguay will have one of the sharpest economic accelerations of growth in 2013, and also for the region, due to the normalization of agricultural production", he added. Eurasia Review reports.

Violent clashes halt crude output in Southwestern Colombia
Ninety percent of pumping and extraction operations have been suspended

Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol Sunday suspended crude production in oil-rich Southwest Catatumbo, a region of Norte de Santander state, following violent clashes between farmers and security forces in the town of Tibu, said Harold Paez, the superintendent of operations. He estimated the losses to be about 1,500 barrels of crude a day, Xinhua reports.

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