09/29/2008 11h37
Hong Kong Noble Group invests in port, alcohol and ore in Brazil
O Estado de S. Paulo - 09/29/2008
World trade giant Noble Group, headquartered in Hong Kong, has laid its eyes on Brazil. Specialized in producing and trading commodities - raw-materials traded in stock exchanges -, the company wants to make the Country its fifth greatest world operation. All over the world, Noble sells more than US$ 11 billion a year. The company started in Brazil as an agricultural trading, exporting grain. It currently has investments in logistics, alcohol and sugar plants and mining. This month, the group gave another sign of its appetite for the Brazilian market, as it started the construction of a terminal in the port of Santos (SP), the first of the company in the Country. The undertaking of tens of millions of dollars (the exact amount has not been disclosed) will allow the flow of more than half of its production of grains and sugar to China, the Middle East and Europe, mainly. "Brazil is one of our priorities in investments", says Ricardo Leiman, Brazilian ahead of the operations of the group in Hong Kong for five years. The announcement in the Country is a sign of the confidence in the emerging markets that has received most of the attention of the company in the last years. With capacity to store 90 thousand tons of sugar and 73 thousand tons of grain (soy or corn), the terminal in the port of Santos will start operating in November, 2009. "It is going to assure more efficiency than any other local port. With that, our sugar in bulk will be exported more speedily", he affirms. The group entered heavily in the alcohol and sugar sector last year. It purchased one plant in Votuporanga (SP), where it quadrupled the productive capacity, and started the construction of another one in Meridiano (SP). Until 2011, the purpose is to reach a processing capacity of 10 million tons of sugarcane a year. "We want to be among the five or ten biggest national producers of ethanol in a few years." Besides the terminal in Santos, the company is building a liquid terminal in Itaqui (MA), in order to flow the raw material. The region was chosen because it is closer to the markets targeted by the ethanol the company will produce: the United States and Europe. It is estimated that the investments that have already been made and are still underway in the Country should reach US$ 600 million - the officers, however, do not confirm the amounts. Besides reducing costs, the integrated operation and the acquisition of fixed assets made the company triple its size in the Country. Last year, the sales of the Brazilian operation reached an increase of 60%. Worldwide, the company grew 20%, with sales of US$ 23.5 billion in 2007.
