DOCSLIB.ORG

Years of Transformations 19443197

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Years of Transformations 19443197 194419311997 CHAPTER 8 Years of Transformations 8.1 New economic horizons gas and minerals found fewer buyers and their prices fell. As a result 249 of this demand shock, iron ore prices fell by 11% between 1998 and On October 23, 1997, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange fell 10.4% 1999, while the prices of pellets, fines and lump ore decreased by and took other markets down with it. The storm hit the São Paulo 12%, 11% and 13%, respectively.4 Stock Exchange (Bovespa), which declined by 8.15% – the second Iron ore producers including CVRD had to take emergency biggest fall among all of the world’s stock markets that day.1 action, such as reducing costs, improving efficiency levels and However, the Brazilian economy made it through the so-called increasing productivity. Against this setting, the Russian crisis Asian crisis2 better than many imagined it would. took place in 1998. A traditional exporter of commodities such as A fundamental foundation, enabling the country to stay oil and gas, the country was the victim of a speculative attack economically strong despite the Asian crisis, had been constructed against its currency, as had happened a short time before in Asia, three years previously. The Real Plan, created in 1994, was a and it declared a 90-day moratorium until it could renegotiate its successful experiment after various attempts to tackle inflation in external debt.5 Brazil, which since the 1980s had been rising, demanding successive The international distrust generated by the Asian and Russian plans that until then had not managed to contain the constant crises hit Brazil. External investment left the country but the real increase in prices. remained stable, given the fixed exchange rate regime, at rates Between 1997 and 2001, Brazil became accustomed to a stable close to the US dollar.6 However, while dollars left the country, the currency and lower inflation rates. The new economic conditions currency remained stable at the cost of interest rates that exceeded led to unparalleled experiences – Brazilians, who saw prices rise by 40% in October 1998.7 2,477% in 1993, ended 1997 with annual inflation of 5.22%.3 The overvaluation of the real in this period was a government The economic growth spurred by the success of the Real Plan strategy to stop inflation from returning, but it was impossible to led to a recovery in capital flows, and the Brazilian economy’s sustain this exchange rate policy for long. As of 1999, the exchange convergence with global standards heightened the interest of major rate moved to a floating model.8 Accordingly, devaluation was international companies. Brazil’s favorable circumstance on foreign immediate and the real weakened from US$1.21 in January to markets would be shaken by the crises that followed as of 1997, but the country would find solutions to face them. The international markets reacted to the Asian crisis by buying 4 - Read more in “Minério de Ferro no mundo: retomada de crescimento.” Mineração e less, and commodity prices slumped across the world. Oil, natural Metalurgia magazine, no. 36, September 2000. Available at <www.bndes.gov.br/SiteBNDES/ export/sites/default/bndes_pt/Galerias/Arquivos/conhecimento/setorial/is_g3_36.pdf>. 5 - See “Rússia ainda discute dívida de US$ 16 bi,” Folha de S. Paulo, November 21, 1998; and BNDES, “Crise na Siderurgia Mundial: a Visão da OCDE.” Informe Setorial Mineração e Metalurgia, 1 - “Bolsas desabam em todo o planeta,” Folha de S. Paulo, October 24, 1997. no. 22, December 1998. 2 - The following Asian countries were affected: Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Hong 6 - See Pinheiro, Armando Castelar; Giambiagi, Fábio and Moreira, Maurício Mesquita. “O o Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines. Brasil na década de 90: uma transição bem-sucedida?” Texto para Discussão n 91, BNDES, Rio de Janeiro, November 2001. 3 - See the IBGE’s Wide-Ranging Consumer Price Index (Índice de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo, or ICPA). The IPCA, the federal government’s official index for measuring inflation 7 - The historical series of “SELIC” interest rates measured by the Central Bank is available rates, has been calculated by the IBGE since 1979. The historical series can be found at at <www.bcb.gov.br/?COPOMJUROS>. <www.portalbrasil.net/ipca.htm>. 8 - Idem. Vale Our History US$1.90 in March. In the following eight months, the real continued The privatization of state-owned companies enabled the to decline, falling 38% in all.9 government to raise resources that, alongside the reduction in Although it did not respond immediately to the devaluation of 1999, the public debt, generated a reconfiguration of the state to focus on the Brazilian economy was capable of expanding its exports, reducing its core activities such as health, transportation and public security. its import growth and rebuilding a trade surplus. Despite that year’s The privatization of the majority of state-owned enterprises adverse conditions, Vale managed to minimize the consequences of in the industrial sector was conducted in the first two years of the Asian and Russian crises. The company’s sales of iron ore and Fernando Henrique’s government. As of 1997, a new stage in the PND pellets amounted to 96.3 million metric tons in 1999, 3.2% lower than began, and the agenda moved on to the electricity, transportation in the previous year – a smaller decline than initially predicted.10 and telecommunications sectors. The focus was on improving the CVRD ended the five-year period covered in this chapter, from quality of the services provided as of that time. In the same period, 1997 to 2001, with a record net income. Its 2001 profit of R$3.05 the privatization process was intensified at the state government billion was 43% higher than in 2000. Between 1997 and 2001, Vale’s level, supported by the federal government.14 A long series of bid net income grew at an average annual rate of 41.7%.11 These results documents would be published from that moment onward. showed that during this period the company was able to overcome In terms of overall figures, the PND achieved the targets 250 the crises on international markets and to grow after one of the proposed when it was established. Between 1990 and 2009, the 251 most important events in its history: its privatization in 1997. federal government transferred 71 companies to the private sector and raised a net total of more than US$30 billion.15 Vale’s privatization 8.2 Privatizations On the afternoon of May 6, 1997, the Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange’s building was surrounded by people. The press counted When Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected president of Brazil 300 protesters.16 The reason for such commotion was the first in 1995, privatizations became a recurrent theme for the federal stage in the auction to privatize Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, government and a tool for tackling the crisis generated in previous after a number of postponements caused by court injunctions. decades. Established in 1990, the National Privatization Program As of that day, Vale began to be administered by a consortium (known by Portuguese acronym PND) was one of the instruments composed of private and public sector companies. The winner used to improve the trade balance and public accounts, and thereby was Consórcio Brasil, a consortium of Brazilian and foreign prolong the stabilization achieved by the Real Plan. Between 1995 investors, which acquired 41.73% of the shares belonging to the and 1996, 19 companies were privatized, raising a total of US$5.1 Brazilian government.17 Following the auction, this consortium billion.12 The highlights in the period were the sales of Escelsa – one was transformed into a company called Valepar, which is Vale’s of the biggest energy distributors in Espírito Santo – in 1995, for controlling shareholder. The purchasers’ funding was guaranteed US$519 million, and Light – an electric power company in Rio de by support from the national development bank, BNDES. The Janeiro – in May 1996, for US$2.509 billion.13 winning bid was R$3,338,178,240.00 – representing a 19.9% The administrative act that included Vale on the National premium on the established starting price. The shares were sold Privatization Program was an initiative of the Executive Branch, for R$32 each, compared to the starting price of R$26.67.18 provided for in part VI, article 84 of the Federal Constitution, and The second stage consisted of the sale of part of the company’s also in Law 8,031/90. This legislation establishes privatization as the capital to employees. This took place alongside the sale of a appropriate means of reducing the state’s presence in the economy, controlling stake to the private sector, also in 1997. The third stage, under the terms of the Federal Constitution. which occurred at the beginning of the 2000s, completed the process of disposing of the federal government’s shares, by enabling 9 - Source: Central Bank, in Pinheiro; Giambiagi and Moreira, op. cit. 10 - Executive summary, 1999 Annual Report. Available at <http://www.vale.com.br/Util/Conteudo/ 14 - Source <http://www.bndes.gov.br/SiteBNDES/bndes/bndes_pt/Institucional/BNDES_ Previous photo: pellet Investidores/relatorios-anuais-e-de-sustentabilidade/ra1999/ra99_sumarioexecutivo.htm>. Transparente/Privatizacao/historico.html>. stockyard at Tubarão 11 - See Annual Reports, 1999-2001. 15 - The data presented were taken from the 2009 Annual Report of the National Privatization Plan (PND), available at <http://www.bndes.gov.br/SiteBNDES/export/sites/ Complex, Espírito Santo, 12 - “Empresas desestatizadas no âmbito do PND por ano.” Available at <http://www.bndes. default/bndes_pt/Galerias/Arquivos/conhecimento/pnd/PND_2009.pdf>.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Deep Into the Mud: Ecological and Socio-Economic Impacts of the Dam
    n a t u r e z a & c o n s e r v a ç ã o 1 4 (2 0 1 6) 35–45 Natureza & Conservação Brazilian Journal of Nature Conservation Supported by Boticário Group Foundation for Nature Protection http:/ /www.naturezaeconservacao.com.br Essays and Perspectives Deep into the mud: ecological and socio-economic impacts of the dam breach in Mariana, Brazil a,b,∗ c d Geraldo Wilson Fernandes , Fernando F. Goulart , Bernardo D. Ranieri , a,e f g h Marcel S. Coelho , Kirsten Dales , Nina Boesche , Mercedes Bustamante , a i b j Felipe A. Carvalho , Daniel C. Carvalho , Rodolfo Dirzo , Stephannie Fernandes , b,k g g k Pedro M. Galetti Jr. , Virginia E. Garcia Millan , Christian Mielke , Jorge L. Ramirez , a g l m c Ana Neves , Christian Rogass , Sérvio P. Ribeiro , Aldicir Scariot , Britaldo Soares-Filho a Evolutionary Ecology & Biodiversity, Department of General Biology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil b Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States c Master in Modeling and Analysis of Environmental Systems, Center for Remote Sensing, Department of Cartography, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil d Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada e Laboratory of Phenology, Department of Botany, Instituto de Biociências (IB), Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Rio Claro, SP, Brazil f Canadian International Resources & Development Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada g Helmholtz
    [Show full text]
  • Impacts of the Fundão Dam Failure
    Impacts of the Fundão Dam failure A pathway to sustainable and resilient mitigation L.E. Sánchez, K. Alger, L. Alonso, F.A.R. Barbosa, M.C.W. Brito, F.V. Laureano, P. May, H. Roeser, Y. Kakabadse RIO DOCE PANEL THEMATIC REPORT NO. 1 About IUCN IUCN is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,300 Member organisations and some 10,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards. IUCN provides a neutral space in which diverse stakeholders including governments, NGOs, scientists, businesses, local communities, indigenous peoples organisations and others can work together to forge and implement solutions to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable development. www.iucn.org https://twitter.com/IUCN/ B | Impacts of the Fundão Dam failure A pathway to sustainable and resilient mitigation L.E. Sánchez, K. Alger, L. Alonso, F.A.R. Barbosa, M.C.W. Brito, F.V. Laureano, P. May, H. Roeser, Y. Kakabadse | i The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
    [Show full text]
  • Rio Doce Panel Issue Paper No
    INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE BUSINESS AND BIODIVERSITY PROGRAMME Rio Doce Panel Issue Paper No. 5 Interconnections between human and ecosystem health An integrative approach for the Rio Doce Basin after the Fundão Dam failure In November 2015, the failure of the Fundão tailings dam at the Samarco´s iron ore mining site in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, resulted in 19 deaths and severe environmental, economic and social damage. The tailings spill ran 670 km through the Rio Doce to the Atlantic Ocean. It is referred to as one of the worst environmental disasters in L.B.N. Alonso,* F.A.R. Barbosa, M.C.W. Brito, P. May, Brazil’s history. C. Maroun, L.E. Sánchez, Y. Kakabadse * Luiza Beth Nunes Alonso, Ed.D., has worked with rural and urban poor communities for over 40 years on socio-developmental issues focused on health and environmental issues. She is currently working as a consultant. Rio Doce Panel Issue Paper No. 5 Figure 1. Permaculture workshop of the Barra Longa − Present of the Future, Healthy Project (MG). Source: Gustavo Baxter/NITRO 2 Rio Doce Panel Issue Paper No. 5 What is the issue? The wave of mud carried sediments previously deposited in the river from weathering and past According to the World Health Organization (WHO), artisanal mining and industrial activities. Together with human health is a state of complete physical, mental untreated sewage (de Carvalho et al., 2019), a mix of and social well-being and does not refer merely to different substances formed as the mud moved further, the absence of disease or infirmity.
    [Show full text]
  • Zona De Amortecimento Do Parque Estadual Do Rio Doce, Minas Gerais, Brasil: Passado, Presente E Futuro
    Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Departamento de Biologia Geral Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo da Vida Silvestre ZONA DE AMORTECIMENTO DO PARQUE ESTADUAL DO RIO DOCE, MINAS GERAIS, BRASIL: PASSADO, PRESENTE E FUTURO Brayan Ricardo de Oliveira Belo Horizonte - MG 2019 Brayan Ricardo de Oliveira ZONA DE AMORTECIMENTO DO PARQUE ESTADUAL DO RIO DOCE , MINAS GERAIS, BRASIL: PASSADO, PRESENTE E FUTURO Tese apresentada ao Programa de Pós- Graduação em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo da Vida Silvestre da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais como requisito parcial para obtenção do Título de Doutor em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo da Vida Silvestre. Orientadora: Paulina Maria Maia-Barbosa Co-Orientadora: Sónia Maria Carvalho-Ribeiro Belo Horizonte – MG 2019 Dedicatória À meus pais e ao meu amor. Agradecimentos Agradeço a todas as pessoas que contribuíram para meu sucesso e para meu crescimento como pessoa. Obrigado por me inspirarem, incentivarem e principalmente, me aturarem. Sou o resultado da confiança e da força de cada um de vocês: - Primeiramente a Deus, por mais uma oportunidade em busca do conhecimento; - À minha Família Oliveira (Milson, Iraldirene, Victor e Duda) e demais familiares, pilares da minha vida pelo incentivo e suporte para a conquista de cada sonho que desperto; - Ao amor da minha vida (Ana Carolina) e familiares, por me acolherem e me conquistarem cada dia mais; - Ao Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia, Conservação e Manejo da Vida Silvestre por permitir a ampliação da minha formação na área que tanto gosto; - À CAPES por permitir me manter em Belo Horizonte/MG com a bolsa de estudos; - À Dra.
    [Show full text]
  • MYCORRHIZAL COLONIZATION in Brachiaria Decumbens Stapf
    DANIEL RODRIGUES DA SILVA MINING TAILINGS EFFECTS FROM MARIANA DAM DISASTER IN MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL, ON GERMINATION, BIOMETRIC PARAMETERS, MINERAL CONTENT, PHOTOSYNTHETIC METABOLISM, MORPHOANATOMY AND MYCORRHIZAL COLONIZATION IN Brachiaria decumbens Stapf. (POACEAE) Thesis presented to the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, as part of the Botany Graduate Program requirements, to obtain the title of Doctor Scientiae. Adviser: Luzimar Campos da Silva VIÇOSA - MINAS GERAIS 2020 Ficha catalográfica elaborada pela Biblioteca Central da Universidade Federal de Viçosa - Campus Viçosa T Silva, Daniel Rodrigues da, 1991- S586m Mining tailings effects from Mariana dam disaster in Minas 2020 Gerais, Brazil, on germination, biometric parameters, mineral content, photosynthetic metabolism, morphoanatomy and mycorrhizal colonization in Brachiaria decumbens Stapf. (Poaceae) / Daniel Rodrigues da Silva. – Viçosa, MG, 2020. 57 f. : il. (algumas color.) ; 29 cm. Orientador: Luzimar Campos da Silva. Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Referências bibliográficas: f.29-41. 1. Gramínea. 2. Degradação do solo. 3. Doce, Rio, Bacia (MG e ES) . I. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Biologia Vegetal. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Botânica. II. Título. CDD 22 ed. 584.9 DEDICATÓRIA Dedico este trabalho à minha mãe Fátima, a meu pai José Gomes, à minha avó Dona Clara aos meus tios Lourdes e Cláudio, a meus amigos e professores de Viçosa, Ubá e Guidoval e às cabeças pensantes por trás deste trabalho. AGRADECIMENTOS Agradeço ao meu pai José Gomes e minha mãe Fátima pelo apoio e suporte dado durante todos esses anos e pela compreensão na minha ausência durante todo esse período. Um agradecimento especial para minha vó dona Clara que é uma pessoa muito especial na minha vida.
    [Show full text]
  • Ming Hom, Et Al. V. Vale, S.A., Et Al. 15-CV-09539-Class Action
    Case 1:15cv09539GHW Document 1 Filed 12/07/15 Page 1 of 21 THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P.A. Phillip Kim, Esq. (PK 9384) Laurence M. Rosen, Esq. (LR 5733) 275 Madison Avenue, 34th Floor New York, New York 10016 Telephone: (212) 686-1060 Fax: (212) 202-3827 Email: lrosenrosenlegal.com Email: pkimrosenlegal.com Counsel for Plaintiff UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK MING HOM, Individually and on Behalf of Case No. All Others Similarly Situated, CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT FOR Plaintiff, VIOLATIONS OF THE FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS V. JURY TRIAL DEMANDED VALE S.A., MURILO PINTO DE OLIVEIRA FERREIRA, AND LUCIANO SIANI PIRES, Defendants. Plaintiff Ming Hom ("Plaintiff'), individually and on behalf of all other persons similarly situated, by Plaintiff's undersigned attorneys, for Plaintiff's Complaint against Defendants, alleges the following based upon personal knowledge as to Plaintiff and Plaintiff's own acts, and upon information and belief as to all other matters based on the investigation conducted by and through Plaintiff's attorneys, which included, among other things, a review of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings by Vale S.A. ("Vale" or the "Company"), as well as media and analyst reports about the Company. Plaintiff believes that substantial evidentiary support will exist for the allegations set forth herein after a reasonable opportunity for discovery. 1 Case 1:15cv09539GHW Document 1 Filed 12/07/15 Page 2 of 21 NATURE OF THE ACTION 1. This is a federal securities class action on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than Defendants who purchased Vale securities between March 21, 2015 and November 30, 2015 (the "Class Period"), inclusive, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by Defendants' violations of federal securities laws and pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act").
    [Show full text]
  • Relationship Between Land Use and Water Quality in a Watershed Impacted by Iron Ore Tailings and Domestic Sewage
    Ambiente & Água - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Science ISSN 1980-993X – doi:10.4136/1980-993X www.ambi-agua.net E-mail: [email protected] Relationship between land use and water quality in a watershed impacted by iron ore tailings and domestic sewage ARTICLES doi:10.4136/ambi-agua.2383 Received: 22 Feb. 2019; Accepted: 06 Aug. 2019 Laura Pereira do Nascimento1* ; Deyse Almeida Reis1 ; Hubert Mathias Peter Roeser2 ; Aníbal da Fonseca Santiago3 1Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental (ProAmb), Escola de Minas (EM), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Campus Universitário Morro do Cruzeiro, s/n, CEP 35400-000, Ouro Preto, MG, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 2Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental (DEAMB), Escola de Minas (EM), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Campus Universitário Morro do Cruzeiro, s/n, CEP 35400-000, Ouro Preto, MG, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] 3Departamento de Engenharia Civil (DECIV), Escola de Minas (EM), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Campus Universitário Morro do Cruzeiro, s/n, CEP 35400-000, Ouro Preto, MG, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Changes in land use and land cover in watersheds, together with population increases and urbanization of these areas, have caused negative impacts on surface water quality. Based on land-use types, we conducted a comprehensive water quality study of the Rio do Peixe watershed, a tributary of the Rio Doce River, located in the Iron Quadrangle, with different land uses/land covers. For this study, the relationship between water quality variables and land use types were examined according to the water quality index and principal components analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • Documentary Report Project on Supply Chains | ITOCHU Corporation
    Brief Overview of Frontline Research This report vol. 4 covers the supply chain from the production of pulp in Brazil to the making of everyday paper tissues, by a nonfiction writer, Kazuma Yamane. Research Period: March 2012 Front-line Report: Kazuma yamane(Nonfiction writer and Dokkyo University Department of Economics Specially-Appointed professor) Visited Brazil for the first time in 1972, and has done on-site research in Brazil about 20 times. In 1996 sponsored the Amazon's first international environmental symposium as representative of Future Association Amazon, an NGO. In 1997, he received an award for distinguished service from the Para state legislature. Brazil and the Amazon are the starting point of his outlook on life and his environmental awareness. * Photographs, except for photograph of portrait of Yamane and photographs of tissue paper boxes, were taken by Kazuma Yamane. About CENIBRA CENIBRA was established on September 13, 1973, as a Japan–Brazil joint venture project after a decision by the Japanese Cabinet. Japan Brazil paper and pulp Resources Development Co., ltd. (JBp), which was a joint venture by large Japanese pulp and paper companies, OECF, and ITOCHU Corporation, owned 48.5% of CENIBRA. The other 51.5% was owned by Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (currently Vale S.A.). CENIBRA began operations in March 1977. Subsequently, in 2001 JBP acquired shares in CENIBRA that were owned by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, and today CENIBRA is operated with 100% Japanese capital. JBP is owned by 14 companies, including Ojipaper (48.98%) and ITOCHU (32.11%) (as of the end of June 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment of a Real-Time Flood Forecasting at the Doce River Basin: Summer 2013 Event
    ASSESSMENT OF A REAL-TIME FLOOD FORECASTING AT THE DOCE RIVER BASIN: SUMMER 2013 EVENT A.J.S. Matos1; E.G. Davis1 ; A.J. Silva1 I.S. Almeida1 M.O. Candido1 1. Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM) ABSTRACT: The Geological Survey of Brazil- CPRM manages a flood warning system in the Doce river basin, which is located in Southeastern Brazil between the states of Minas Gerais (MG) and Espírito Santo (ES). In summer of 2013 the worst flood that happened was on city of Colatina-ES. This town suffered the second greatest flood in the recorded history. It was observed that the active atmospheric events in this period were SACZ (South Atlantic Convergence Zone) and HCZ (Humidity Convergence Zone). The study of the rainfall in this basin has shown that in some places it rained four times more than expected, such as the region near the city of Rio Bananal, which registered an accumulated rainfall of 942mm for December 2013. The historical average (1977-2006), according to CPRM (2014), for this region is 206 mm of rain for the month of December, so it rained 457% of expected rainfall. The Rio Bananal monitoring station, located in this city, recorded a rainfall of 280mm in just one day. During this period, 79 hydrological warning bulletins were issued by CPRM. For the real time forecast in Colatina city was used a discharge-discharge model, which provides a pretty accurate level of the river with six hours in advance. The data used as input in the model comes from an automatic telemetric station.
    [Show full text]
  • Mining in the First Republic 1910
    1910 CHAPTER 1 Mining in the First Republic 1.1 All that glitters is not gold nationalist movements. The workers of Itabira created their own 0217 dialect, guinlagem de camaco (or “monkey language”),2 to avoid being At the end of the 19th century – when prospectors had already understood by their foreign bosses. As time went by, the Itabira Iron given up their search for gold in Minas Gerais and abandoned the Ore Co., which grew up around the Vitória-Minas Railroad, acquired villages in the hills to look for work on the coast – the town of Itabira the profile of the men who ran it. Percival Farquhar – who is said to was little more than Cauê Peak. Cauê was one of those places that have kept the first dollar he earned mounted in a frame next to his nature seems to have sculpted by hand: a mountain that rose up bed, beside a photograph of his parents – was one of them. suddenly from the surrounding plains, forming a unique feature. It Farquhar was a legendary figure, someone whose life seems like is said that during full moons, the mountain used to shine as if lit something from a work of fiction. Some consider him a capitalist up by floodlights hung from the sky. However, as we know, all that genius; others, an opportunist. Born in the city of York, Pennsylvania, glitters is not gold. in the United States, he came to Brazil after working on railroad The word Itabira is of Tupi origin, meaning rock (“ita”) that construction ventures in Latin America (including the unsuccessful shines (“bira”).1 Contrary to the assumptions of the adventurers Madeira-Mamoré adventure in what is now the Brazilian state of who arrived to dig at the foot of Cauê Peak (the shining rock Acre), and he acquired the Itabira Iron Ore Co.
    [Show full text]
  • The Defining Years: CVRD As a World-Class Exporting Company 19443166
    194419311966 CHAPTER 4 The Defining Years: CVRD as a World-Class Exporting Company 4.1 All paths lead to the sea metric tons. Tubarão was built in partnership with business people 103 from the Japanese steel industry, and definitively marked a change It is one of those remarkable stories that stand out in CVRD’s in Vale’s export strategy. Long distances, large ships, long-term history: on the day before the official opening of Tubarão Maritime contracts, and enormous quantities of ore: it was a superlative Terminal in Espírito Santo, in 1966, one of the car dumpers vision of what lay ahead. With a pier that sticks out nearly four designed to rotate train cars, dumping their ore onto conveyor belts kilometers into the sea, Vale was pointing to its future. leading to ships, had stopped working. The system’s manufacturer The work included constructing a breakwater, a pier alongside had forbidden unauthorized people from touching the machines 16-meter-deep water, riprap along the shore, where facilities to and, to make things worse, a technician would have to come move and store iron ore and coal were located, a railroad yard, from Canada to resolve the problem. It certainly was a problem. and rolling stock maintenance workshops. The mechanized In a little under 24 hours, the President of the Republic, Marshal facilities for moving iron ore and coal were equipped with modern Castelo Branco himself, would be activating the mechanisms for technological apparatus. Ore was unloaded from trains (with up the first official operation at the terminal, whose construction had to 150 cars) using a rotary car dumper, in a completely automated begun under João Goulart’s government in 1962.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report Of
    Annual Report of 2013 Sustainability Report 2013 | COPASA MG 50 Years Of Copasa Numbers, reports, statements, relevant information, achieve- have worked and work in building our 50-year history. We who know ments and expectations, here we’ll have everything one expects from our rivers and river basins, we know a little spring alone can grow a document like this. Once again, Copasa is shown and placed with when it joins to another, believe in its fate, jumps and runs through transparency. But this year we have a different report for a reason the mountains of Minas Gerais till it reaches our valleys and then directly linked to numbers: we are reporting the results of the year seek other lands where they serve. These are the rivers of Minas, we achieved our first 50 years. ready, like us the people in Minas, to integrate, unify and serve. We This report shows a bit of what we did to mark such a relevant are thus in Copasa. We look back with pride and learning in search date - the Povo D’Água workshop. A group of 71 employees, each of how best to build on the next 50 years, serving the Minas and its with experiences and practical contact related to the rivers of our people. state that makes up our nine major river basins, they dedicated In our Sustainability Report it stands out, as you can see, themselves to a work of which the vast majority had no previous some numbers: nine large basins that are actually the union of experience: embroider and turn this very act in a meaningful artistic thousands and thousands of springs, small streams and large rivers; performance, with beauty and sharing - the final work is the sum of 71 employees who symbolize all that worked here, work and still will everything that was made collectively.
    [Show full text]