Brazil’s government is to forecast a 7.34 percent rise in their economy this year, a figure that defeats the trend of many other nations that suffered shrinking economies during the global recession. Growth surpassed most expectations, but some economists debate that the government should start to lower spending and raise interest rates to avoid a backlash next year.

Reasons for the expanding economy according to Sergio Amaral, an official in Brazil’s foreign ministry and president of the China Brazil Business Council, is because government loans kept domestic production levels on a high, and as a result “I think China played an important role because China is now our first trading partner and China has been expanding its imports from Brazil.

After a decade of growing economic ties, China is now Brazil’s largest trading partner replacing the United States as Brazil’s top trading partner in 2009. Exports to the U.S. declined reflecting economy, but as soon as that recovers demand should naturally increase as markets differ in North America and Europe. China relies on trading raw materials such as soybeans and agricultural goods, as opposed to exporting more expensive and industrialised products.

Some analysts believe that exporting such commodities will only offer Brazil a temporary boost to the economy, one that is not sustainable in the long-term.

Gilmar Masiero lectures in economics at the University of Sao Paulo, says exporting soybeans and iron ore does not create enough jobs to really impact Brazil’s economy. If trade with China is to provide Brazil with continued economic growth and create jobs for Brazilians, then it must broaden beyond commodities.

“If we build more technological partnerships with countries who are more or less in the same level of development that we are, then we can grow together and we can be competitive in specific sectors that must be new emerging technological sectors and not put our efforts in old industries”

As a result, there is already a shift in Sino-Brazilian export relations.  “I think there is an evolution, recently, the outstanding point is not trade, its investment,” Amaral said.  “Chinese companies are expected to invest $10 billion in Brazil this year and this year China will be the largest investor in Brazil.

Chinese companies will continue to invest in their Brazilian relations by building telecommunications and infrastructure projects, which include a bid to construct a high speed train line between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro ahead of Brazil’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.

For now, China continues to fuel Brazil’s economic growth even when the developed world is still struggling with sluggish recoveries as the world emerges from the financial crisis and economic slowdown. One can say that economic slowdown has helped pushed two countries closer together

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My sincere apologies to any Beetles fans.

2016 might seem an eternity from today, but it is actually about the time for one of  Greenwood Management’s main scheduled eucalyptus harvests.

The relevance of which is?

Well, as many of our resident forestry investing experts will know,  ABRAF,  The Association of Planted Forestry Producers,  compile the  “ABRAF Annual  Statistical Data Yearbook”  each year.

Not the punchiest title you’ll ever come across.

The publication is  long-winded and not necessarily one for a Booker Prize nomination but nevertheless, for us at greenwood management,  the contents of the report make compelling reading.

Getting back to the future for a moment,  2016 will be a big harvest date on our calender - that’s established.

The ABRAF report here,

http://www.abraflor.org.br/estatisticas/ABRAF10-EN/controle.html

(If you fancy checking it out  - page 12 chapter 2)

says:

“It is noteworthy to mention that a new investment of iron and steel industry in Minas Gerais is under way, resulting from a partnership of multinational corporations, to build manufacturing plant of seamless tubes, based exclusively on charcoal consumption from planted forests, with production to be started in 2016.”

So:

Minas Gerais  > Multinational Steel Corporation Partnerships  >  Steel Production 2016  > Big  Charcoal Demand >  Investor Profits

We can work it out.  (Lennon and McCartney)

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I imagine most people are familiar with google earth nowadays. We’ve all had a good look at our houses from high up in the heavens followed by a  good snoop around  to see if the anyone nearby has a house with a secret collection of garden gnomes hidden in the back garden, or is that just me being nosy?

Greenwood Management recently decided to employ googles technology to have  a look around our plantations and a few of the other facilities nearby in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

This should literally give clients a clearer picture of how the land lies, so to speak.  We also plan to augment googles imagery, when it gets right down to ground level, by slightly overlaying our own photos at the very end of the footage. It sounds tricky but all will become clear soon.  Again the purpose is to help  to show how the actual plantation on the ground is shaping up  in relation to the general area using Google earth.

Having trialled a couple of videos on one of  greenwoods plantations, we’re really quite pleased with the results and want to get it online as soon as we can. Just a flash of artistic flair from our videographer and we should be ready to go fairly soon.

Other plantations should follow if this is well received. As ever, all feedback is welcome

The April  newsletter should keep you in the loop too.

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A couple of snippets of rather good news just in from the Greenwood Management team in Brazil this week.

Apparently a new rail link is planned to run by the main cluster of our plantations, the details of which are going on to the greenwood management sister website www.gwm-tv.com soon.

There’s no disguising the fact that this is really terrific news - the logistics for the onward transportation of the timber/charcoal will become much easier and far more economic.  Being able to transport greenwoods timber or charcoal by freight train opens up additional markets too.

What’s more, there is news that further along the rail line  a new steel plant is being built. So a rail link from Greenwood Managements plantations to a new steel plant could have significantly positive implications over the years to come.   Again, the information will go onto the www.gwm-tv.com website as soon as we have more details.

So that’s two very welcome pieces of good fortune   -     here’s a few luck related pearls of wisdom to mull over:

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity” -  Oprah Winfrey

“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like? -  Jean Cocteau

“If you want more luck,  show up more often” -  Anonymous school teacher, having given me the schools lowest ever grade in woodwork.

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Following the greenwood management  “Brazilian samba beats the blues”  blogpost, we’ve put our serious hats on today.

For those not familiar with the “Cerrado” region of Brazil, it’s a huge expanse of savanna,  said by the World Wildlife fund to be the richest, biologically speaking,  and the  most important on our planet.  More than 1600 species of mammals, birds and reptiles have been identified in the region.

Anyway its half gone.

Between 2002 and 2008, about 85 thousand square kilometres of vegetation was removed.  A fair old whack.

The main reasons for degradation in the Cerrado are livestock farming, agriculture and production of charcoal from native forests  for the steel industry.

On March 16th 2010, speaking about the Brazilian governments  “Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in Cerrado”  the Minister for the Environment Carlos Minc put out his plan to make industry use charcoal which is not made from native trees, in order to protect the ecosystem in the Cerrado.

To be precise,  Mr Minc said     “We will open governmental lines of funding for the planting of commercial forests and will, moreover, reduce taxes on charcoal that comes from forest planted exclusively to be used as firewood and charcoal.”

Above photo- Brazilian Minister for the Environment,  Mr Carlos Minc

So now we know that the carbon source for steel production must be from forestry instead of fossil fuels,  and that the trees must be from managed plantations outside of the Cerrado region,  a few questions  spring to mind:

Where will the charcoal come from to replace all of the charcoal produced in the Cerrado?

How will enough forestry be grown in time to replace all the fossil fuels?

How hard will steel producers compete to secure long term supply contracts?

How large a supply deficit is likely to emerge?

What are the implications for charcoal values?

Interesting times ahead.

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Down at the Copacabana, the greatest party on earth is in full swing today.

The first time I went to the Rio Carnival  I was annoyed.   The thing is,  I had to pay to get in, and having to pay for anything I thought was going to be free,  instantly puts a downer on it.

No,  I had this idea that the Carnival would be a spontaneous outpouring from the grass roots of Brazil’s most vibrant city.  The rhythm of the Samba would be oozing from the streets and it would be gratis,  without charge,  on the house.   To be fair it was everything I expected,  and probably more.  I was just too upset at the time that I had to stump up the cash.

Held in February at the peak of the Brazilian summer, half a million visitors flock to the Rio Carnival every year,  adding to the million local revelers.  Lasting over four days, it culminates with the famous  “Samba Parade” , which  the Samba schools spend all year preparing for.

Learn to Samba, douse your costume in sequins and feathers and get ready to dance all night - not dissimilar to the the greenwood management Christmas party!

Get to the point man.

Brazil is in full party mode, not just for the Carnival but the nation as a whole.  Whenever I go there,  it seems to be bursting with energy and optimism.   TV channels aren’t conducting a never ending post mortem into the recession.

The blame culture seems to be left for Europe and America to wrestle over.  Our bankers should be horse-whipped,  paid a flat rate of 3 dollars a day,  then left  to clean the canteen toilets.

But Brazil seems to have abandoned the rear-view mirror mentality and is confidently samba-ing  into the future. Talk of the football World Cup, the Olympic games, new oil discoveries, massive construction projects left right and centre.

Arriving back at in Europe,  it feels like I’ve been out on a cracking night out,  only to be in so much trouble for returning home intoxicated,  with Brazilian enthusiasm.   Back to reality. Grumble,  groan, doom, gloom.

A Brazilian chap was on Bloomberg today.  I say chap.  his name was Eike Batista,  Brazils richest man.  Amongst other things,  Mr Batista was talking about the importance of the big new oil discoveries for Brazil. Naturally he is involved..being Brazils richest man.  He also spoke about the booming demand for Brazilian steel,  especially from China (Brazils largest trading partner).  Much of the massive industrial growth in China is being fed by Brazilian steel,  for which the energy supply chain now has to be met from Brazilian forestry plantations, using exotic species such as eucalyptus and acacia.

At least Bloomberg cheered me up abit.

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The phrase  “mighty oaks from little acorns grow”  fits the bill nicely for the photo below.  I think the saying originally has some connection to Chaucer but I could be way off the mark.  My apologies to any literary bods out there.

Getting back in the comfort zone,  you might possibly be interested to know that the word acorn doesn’t actually come from ‘oak’ or  ‘corn’  but from the old English word  ‘aecern’,  meaning berry.  The “Acer” genus of trees and shrubs is more commonly known as the Maple or Sycamore Maple, the Acer pseudoplatanus  (I’m not making this up!).

Moving effortlessly into Greenwood Management matters,  the autumn and winter planting season has been a great success with the seedlings on the plantations being off to a perfect start,  despite the heavy rainfall we’ve had in Brazil of late. They don’t call it the rainforest  for nothing!

Granted they aren’t the most photogenic bunch in the world but they all lined up nicely for their class photo.

Some of  the greenwood youngsters in situ

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Pssst……Some inside news for anyone that’s looking in.  The word is that greenwood management are setting up a new website soon called gwm-tv.com

An “undisclosed source” tells me that “greenwood tv”  will have lots of forestry,  newsy, eucalyptussy features from Greenwood Managements plantations in Brazil,  plus things like charcoal prices and a whole host of financial, corporate stuff for those that like that kind of thing.

You heard it here first though.

http://www.gwm-tv.com/

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Now I know I said this blog wasn’t  all going to be about forestry, but forgive me for a moment as I draw to your attention some pretty exciting forestry news from Brazil.  The reason for breaking out into full forestry mode so early in the blog  is simple.   It’s great news!

Several of Greenwood Management’s forestry projects are based on Eucalyptus plantations  in Brazil.  Well, that’s  all going nicely to plan, when  the Brazilian President announces that Brazil will stop making steel in any other way than by using charcoal produced from planted exotic forestry such as eucalyptus.    All the fossil fuels used before to manufacture the steel will have to be replaced by charcoal, by law!

That’s alot of charcoal needed,  and there’s isn’t enough being produced even before this  new demand kicks in.

The news is on Brazilian Government website here:

http://www.cop15brasil.gov.br/en-US/?page=noticias/green-steel-for-the-brazilian-steel-industry

Some highlights below:

“The proposal presented by the Ministry of Environment aims to produce the “green steel”, which uses charcoal from afforested areas, instead of coal, to produce the pig iron (steel with impurity). As a result of the Brazilian proposal, the iron and steel industries will commit to use only charcoal in their high temperature furnaces”

“….the timber used in the charcoal…will only involve exotic species like eucalyptus. This will ensure the preservation of the native vegetation. It is worth mentioning that one ton of pig iron produced from coal emits 1.9 tons of CO2, while the production of 1 ton of green steel removes 1.1 ton of gas from the atmosphere.”

http://www.cop15brasil.gov.br/en-US/?page=noticias/interview-suzana-kahn-the-secretary-for-climate-change-and-environmental-quality_brazil

“For the steel industry, we want to adopt the green steel and stimulate the utilization of charcoal from reforestation” (Suzana Kahn, The Secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Quality at the Ministry of the Environment).

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Greetings! We’ve been talking about putting up an official “Greenwood blog” for what seems like ages,  so we’re quite excited the blog’s finally up and running. We plan to put up lots of snippets and links here, not always about trees.   No doubt we’ll throw in news about Greenwood Management projects,  forestry investment news,  green energy….. that kind of stuff.

We’re on facebook, twitter and a few other of those kind of techy things I don’t understand

There’s a comments box  for your feedback, so we hope to hear from you as well

Anyway,  I’m told that blog posts should be short and punchy.

An official welcome to the Greenwood management blog!

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