SAO PAULO, April 26 (Reuters) – Vale, the world’s
largest iron ore miner, expects demand and prices for its main
product to recover through 2012, but is likely to face bigger
future tax bills that would make it harder to capitalize on any
improvement in metal markets, company executives said.

Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira said on Thursday in a
post-results conference calls with analysts that Vale expects to
meet the company’s 2012 estimates for sales of 310 million
tonnes of iron ore, its main revenue earner, despite poor sales
in the first quarter.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A new prosecutor in the case against Chevron Corp and drilling firm Transocean Ltd for an offshore oil spill said Thursday he will seek to suspend the companies’ operations in Brazil, a sign that he may be just as tough on the companies as his predecessor.

Prosecutor Celso de Albuquerque Silva said he was seeking the injunction on grounds that the companies’ activities are dangerous to the environment and society. Chevron and Transocean face a combined $22 billion in lawsuits, and several executives face prison, because of two incidents in which oil leaked off Brazil’s coast in November and March.

SAO PAULO, April 18 (Reuters) – The Brazilian federal
prosecutor pressing criminal and civil litigation against
Chevron Corp and drilling-rig operator Transocean Ltd
for an offshore drilling accident has lost control of
the cases.

A judge moved a criminal case against Chevron and Transocean
to a court in Rio de Janeiro, a court document said on
Wednesday, removing crusading prosecutor Eduardo Santos de
Oliveira from the proceeding.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – In its latest bid to slow dollar inflows in a “global currency war,” Brazil has dealt an unexpected blow to its own commodity exporters, choking off medium-term trade financing at a vulnerable time for the sector.

Brazil – a source of much of the world’s sugar, coffee, soy, beef and iron ore – has imposed a series of taxes on foreign capital over the past year to slow what President Dilma Rousseff called a “tsunami” of cheap money flowing from the rich world.

SAO PAULO, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Brazil’s government
announced an aggressive plan on Friday to raise flagging ethanol
output over the next four years by showering the sector with 65
billion reais ($38 billion) in subsidized credit.

The government will allocate funds via banks to mills and
independent growers for the expansion and replanting of older
cane whose yields have fallen. Credit will also be available to
build up ethanol stockpiles.

SAO PAULO, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Cosan,
Brazil’s biggest sugar and ethanol group, agreed to pay more
than double the market price for 5.7 percent of America Latina
Logistica (ALL), a railway serving agricultural areas of Brazil
and Argentina.

ALL controls a 21,000-kilometer railway network
that links major agricultural regions in southern Brazil and
northern Argentina with the key ports of Santos, Paranagua and
Buenos Aires. A lack of suitable roads, rail links and ports has
been one of the main limits to growth of Brazilian agriculture.

SAO PAULO, Feb 15 (Reuters) – The risk of bottlenecks
for soy and corn exports from Brazil, one of the world’s top
suppliers of the commodities, is growing each day the country’s
main grain terminal at Santos Port is shut down due to a
collision with a ship late on Monday.

The impact of the impaired terminal on world food and
futures markets is still small while harvesting of grains in
Brazil remains nascent, a port official said.

SAO PAULO, Feb 14 (Reuters) – About a quarter of
Brazil’s shipments of soy and corn to world markets were
disrupted on Tuesday, a day after a dry bulk carrier collided
with and damaged a major grain terminal at Santos Port.

Late on Monday, the dry bulk carrier MV Milagro, under the
Maltese flag, knocked into the water one of the four grain
loaders at the Guaruja Grain Terminals (TGG) complex at Santos,
Latin America’s largest port, a TGG representative said on
Tuesday.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Federal police in Brazil on Wednesday recommended the indictment of several Chevron and Transocean officials involved in an oil spill in early November for environmental crimes and withholding information in an investigation.

The indictment is unrelated to a civil suit brought against the companies by a public prosecutor on December 14, seeking fines of $11 billion for their alleged roles in the spill at Chevron’s Frade field off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

SAO PAULO, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Brazilian mining giant Vale slashed its capital spending budget for 2012 by 11
percent and pushed back its largest iron ore project by two
years in the face of falling commodities prices and
environmental delays.

The cut in planned spending on new projects, research and
improvements to existing mines and facilities also reflects a
new cost-conscious approach at the world’s second-largest
mining company, which has pleased investors.