• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Brazil's Vale to invest $12 billion in 2010-report

Sat Oct 17, 2009 12:36pm EDT

Stocks

   

BRASILIA, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Brazilian mining giant Vale (VALE5.SA) will boost investment by more than 30 percent to around $12 billion next year, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said on Saturday, citing a source with links to the company.

Stocks  |  Brazil  |  Basic Materials

The company has faced harsh criticism in recent months from government leaders for not investing enough in Brazil, fueling speculation President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking to force out the company's chief executive Roger Agnelli.

On Wednesday, the the world's largest iron ore producer announced it would invest more than $5 billion by 2015 to boost production capacity in the mining state of Minas Gerais, in efforts to stave off criticism. [ID:nN14269504]

Vale (VALE.N) came under pressure late last year when it laid off some 1,200 Brazilian workers, after idling capacity amid the financial crisis, and again in May after it slashed 2009 investments by 37 percent to $9 billion.

Lula said on Friday he will meet the head of Vale next week and said the company was preparing to announce another set of investments without offering details. [ID:nN16342404]

Vale's second-quarter profits tumbled 84 percent versus the year earlier period as lower iron ore production and prices pushed earnings to around half of what analysts had projected.

(Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)

Stocks
Brazil
Basic Materials


More from Reuters

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (C) is surrounded by reporters as she walks towards the U.S. House of Representatives chamber to begin the vote on health care reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 21, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Democrats face dubious voters

Democrats in Congress who passed historic legislation to revamp the healthcare system face a new challenge: convincing voters it's a good deal.  Full Article | Video 

Healthcare reform
A soldier guards hundreds of bags of wheat seed in the isolated district of Nad Ali's district centre in the west of Helmand province, October 17, 2009

Dirty money and Afghan war

As the war in Afghanistan enters its ninth year, the U.S. has finally realized the best way to stop the conflict is to cut the flow of drug money, columnist Bernd Debusmann writes.   Commentary 

    Afghanistan
    An H1N1 flu vaccine inoculation is given at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania October 28, 2009. REUTERS/Brad Bower

    A new stab at conquering pain

    Millions of people worldwide suffer chronic pain that can last weeks, months or years but relief may be on the way.  Full Article 

      Pharmaceuticals