V Winner Post #17 - More About the South of Brazil

Transportation

The South is well served in the transport sector, with natural conditions that facilitate the deployment of a good loop road and rail. Moreover, the fact that its population is distributed evenly, without large empty population, allows its network of transport is more efficient and profitable. While almost all major cities of the region are served by lines of the Federal Railway Network (RFFSA), road transport is more developed. The region has several roads such as Highway Régis Bittencourt, connecting Sao Paulo to Rio Grande do Sul, and the Highway Café, reaching the northern Parana to the port of Paranaguá. As other regions of Brazil, the rail and road investments which require the maintenance of existing roads and the opening of new ones. Even the most busy airports in Brazil, after the airports in the Southeast and Brasilia, are located in the South This region also has ports in activity: the port of Paranaguá, which exports mainly coffee and soybeans; the ports of Imbituba and Laguna, in Santa Catarina, exporters of coal, the ports of South San Francisco, Itajaí and Itapoá (the 1 ° private port in Brazil) also in Santa Catarina, exporters of wood, and finally the ports of Rio Grande and Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, by which goods are diverse.


Energy

The Southern region is very rich in oil shale and coal. The coal is used to produce electricity at thermoelectric plants, such as Usina Termelétrica Jorge Lacerda, in Santa Catarina. In addition to these minerals, the region has also hydroelectric energy in abundance, thanks to the characteristics of its hydrography - the rivers and the rivers of caudalosos plateau. The largest hydroelectric power plant in the region is the Itaipu, inaugurated in 1983, that takes water from the river Parana, more precisely in the vicinity of the cities of Foz do Iguazu (Brazil) on the left bank in Ciudad del Este, former President Puerto Stroessner ( Paraguay), on the right bank. How is considered the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, its energy is used in equal parts by both countries to which they belong, Brazil and Paraguay. In addition to supply South Region, the energy of the Itaipu hydroelectric Usina is vastly used in other regions of Brazil, including in the Southeast, which is more developed, with the large industries. The distribution of electric energy in the Southern Region is controlled by Eletrosul, based in Florianopolis (SC), which extends action to the State of Mato Grosso do Sul and also to other areas of Brazil, due to interconnections with the network's Energy Region Southeast. Regarding the hydroelectric plants that still exist in activity since the twentieth century, came into operation between the decades of 1990 and 2000, such as hydroelectric Usina de Ilha Grande, the river Parana, Usina of hydroelectric Machadinho, in the river Pelotas, and hydroelectric Usina Itá, on the River Uruguay.
PAC estimated $ 18.7 billion for infrastructure, energy in the South Region

The southern region will receive $ 18.7 billion in investments in energy infrastructure from 2007 to 2010, according to the Growth Acceleration Program (CAP). Across the country, investment in the sector will total $ 274.8 billion. Most resources will be devoted to expansion of the capacity of generation and transmission of electric energy. The Rio Grande do Sul, Parana and Santa Catarina will receive $ 10.42 billion for generation of 4,472 megawatts of electricity. Seven hydroelectric plants are planned and a thermoelectric the coal. They are in the deployment phase eight hydroelectric, three thermoelectric, 11 small hydroelectric central, 11 central wind and two thermoelectric biomass. A total of $ 1.05 billion will be implemented by 2010, 2,078 kilometers of transmission lines of power in the south. In the area of renewable fuels, should be applied R $ 628 million in the production of ethanol and R $ 330 million in biodiesel. There are no estimates of investments in pipelines in the region.


Growth Potential


The South Region is highlighting positive in virtually all follow economic, in the industrial sector is no different. He, currently, the percentage of second place in that sector of the national economy, the trade is 21% of the national total thus is exceeded only by the Southeast. In the region are inserted different types of industries, however, the activities that dominate most is the food and textile production, they use as raw material to production agriculture developed in the region. The industries are installed at strategic locations near the sources of material-press, in the areas of livestock production are productive parks in the wake of refrigerators, leather, milk, as in areas of agricultural production are installed factories for vegetable oils, production of wheat, production of juices and wine. This junction between agricultural and industrial production is called for agribusiness. The industries of the Southern region are regularly distributed over the territory, they are found in small towns and medium, however, naturally the areas that concentrate the largest portion of the industries are in the metropolitan areas of Porto Alegre and Curitiba and northeast of Santa Catarina , which has Joinvile, Blumenau, Brusque, in addition to industrial parks in the cities of Londrina, Maringá, Ponta Grossa, in Parana, already in Rio Grande do Sul the main cities are Caxias do Sul, Santa Maria and Pelotas. One of the important factors for the industrial development in the Southern Region is the potential energy due to hydroelectric plants installed in the region, the relief of plateau facilitated the construction of the same, thus the abundance of electric energy facilitates the supply of productive industrial sector.


New prospects for the industry in the south Until the 70's, the economic activities undertaken in the Southern Region were linked to primary production, especially in agriculture and livestock products. Henceforth, in this step the region joined in an intense process of industrialization in different follow, soon became the second industrial pole of the country. Later, in the late 80's and the early 90, there has been no significant growth, thus the industrial park in the northeast that almost surpassed. However, the growth of the industry occurred recently, with the migration of investments in the sector, which provided the installation of domestic and foreign companies that produce cars, parts, supplies, computers, appliances and beverages. The incentives for the installation of several companies in the region are directly related to tax benefits offered by the state and placed in the context of the entire infrastructure that facilitates the movement of goods, capital and people, in addition to proximity to the trading partners of MERCOSUR (Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay). With all these aspects, the south is in a condition privileged in relation to the rest of the country, the region establishes a homogeneity of the industry and that favors growth equal within the territory.