Group pledges support to provide electricity to all in Latin America and the Caribbean

With as many as 10 percent of the estimated 600 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean lacking electricity, the executive secretary of the Latin American Energy Organization said this week projects will be started soon. OLADE's goal is to contribute to the region´s integration, sustainable development and energy security by giving advice and fostering cooperation Read More »

Deutsche Bank closing Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay operations

Deutsche Bank also announced that it is move its trading activities in Brazil to regional hubs as part of changes in the company´s strategy. The bank said that the changes were part of a “a series of measures to reduce complexity and costs” over the next five years and that it will also eliminate 9,000 full-time positions plus approximately 6,000 external contractor positions. Read More »

Artisanal breweries achieve brand recognition in Chilean market

Chilean artisanal breweries have been in the country´s beer market long enough to have achieved significant brand recognition and become a key alternative to industrial beer products, with at least one artisanal brewery becoming a tourist destination. Part of what makes the artisanal brewery business difficult are the efforts by the industrial beer brands to capture markets. Read More »

Brazil´s business hurdles provide opportunities for Radius

For U.S. companies, Brazil can be one of the most complex countries in the world to do business with because of all of the requirements that are enforced, Larry Harding, the head of corporate development activities of Radius, told Latin Business Daily in an interview. Radius provides help to companies expanding into any country in the world by leading them through legal matters. Read More »

Latin America, Caribbean to focus on solar energy

ET Solar has solar energy projects in different stages for a total of 187 megawatts (MW) in all of Latin America and the Caribbean of which 23 MW will be completed in November. The construction stage for the remainder, which is a total of 164 MW, is scheduled to begin in 2016. Of the total projects, 125 MW are in different stages of development in Chile while 62 MW will be in Brazil. Read More »

U.N. secretary: Latin America integration would strengthen trade presence

Latin American and Caribbean countries need to work together to be less vulnerable to potentially harmful trade accords, Alicia Bárcena, the United Nations' executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLA), said last week. Bárcena was specifically discussing the potential impact of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Latin America. Read More »

Brazil´s Embraer sells 19 E175 airplanes to Skywest for $843.6 million

Brazil-based Embraer recently sold 19 E175 airplanes to Skywest Airlines in a transaction valued at an estimated $843.6 million.The list price for each E175 plane, which features a new wingtip that improves aerodynamic performance, is $44.4 million, and this most-recent order follows a previous one for 18 E175 units. 80 percent of Embraer's E175 orders have come from the U.S. Read More »

Brazil pork meat exports rise in volume but plunge in dollars

Exports of pork meat from Brazil have gained significantly in volume in the first nine months of 2015 when compared to the previous year; yet, revenues have still plunged in the same period. However, revenues in dollars fell 17.5 percent during the same period compared with a year earlier, accumulating a final result of $918 million in 2015 due to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus. Read More »

Colombia restarts upgraded Cartagena refinery after $8 billion investment

Colombian officials restarted the crude processing unit of the Cartagena refinery Wednesday in the first step of making all 31 units of the upgraded plant operational that will process 165,000 barrels of crude per day. The country´s state oil company Ecopetrol separately said that the investment increased crude refining capacity to 165,000 barrels per day from 80,000 barrels per day.  Read More »

Latin American comic industry marked by social, political issues

The Latin American comic strip industry is different from its U.S. and European counterparts because of its influence by political and social issues, a local comic strip creator recently told Latin Business Daily. In Europe and especially in the U.S., there historically has been a bigger emphasis on characters who have special powers, but that's not the case in Latin America.  Read More »

Latin American megatrends: urbanization, middle class growth, richer women

Over the next decade, Latin America will see an increase in urbanization and a growing middle class, in addition to more purchasing power for women, a recent study on megatrends by Frost & Sullivan predicted. The full study will be published in November ahead of Frost & Sullivan's conference on Growth, Innovation and Leadership to be held in early December in Miami, Florida. Read More »