Brazil has been severely impacted by the financial crisis, particularly during the second and third quarter of 2009. As a consequence, some of the main companies in Brazil had to reduce production over the last year, such as magnesite and refractories producer Magnesita Refratarios SA, and kaolin producers Vale SA and Rio Capim Caulim (RCC), the latter a subsidiary of French mining giant Imerys.
However, Brazil’s economy appears to have started a healthy recovery from the global recession and the International Monetary Found (IMF) confirmed that South America is starting to experience cautious optimism with Brazil leading the way to recovery over strong economies such as Argentina and Mexico.
As reported by IM last month, the country is focusing on developing its fertiliser minerals markets in order to reach fertiliser self-sufficiency by 2013, with a very promising long-term outlook for fertiliser demand forecasted. In addition, the ministry of...