Media Highlights

Korean investments in Brazil rise 213% in 2011

24 August 2011

Methodic like Japanese businessmen and bold like the Chinese. That is how corporative consultants define Korean businessmen, whose number has increased in Brazil.

South Korea's Foreign Direct Investment in Brazil tripled in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. It surged from US$ 194 million to US$ 608 million, a 213.4% increase. The Asian tiger is one of the ten countries that most invested in Brazil this year. Korea was a distant 21st in 2010.

Although it may seem a contradiction, the combination of caution and boldness makes Korean businessmen -- who seldom go back on their decisions -- successful.

"They take long to decide, everything seems a little bureaucratic. But after the deal's framework is set, they are very agile and efficient in bringing the project to life," says Martim Machado, a partner in Campos Mello Advogados, which works in cooperation with DLA Piper (U.S.).

Campos Mello assisted Hyundai Heavy Industries to build its first heavy machinery factory for civil construction in Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro.

The negotiations lasted one year. The US$ 150 million factory is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2012. It will be the company's -- the world's the biggest shipyard -- first factory outside Asia.

It will be a 300,000 m² factory in a 600,000m² area, which will allow future expansions. "They are interested in producing machinery for construction. Ships are not in their plans for now," says Machado.

Hyundai Heavy Industries also is partners with Eike Batista's OSX, a naval construction company.

Another company, Hyundai Motor, invested US$ 600 million in a factory in Piracicaba, in the interior of São Paulo state, to produce 150,000 automobiles a year, starting in the second half of 2012.

The company, which has factories in Russia, India and China, said it came to Brazil due to the country's "sustainable growth and the great inflow of foreign investments."

Samsung Electronics invested in the expansion of its Manaus factory, which grew from 50,000 m² to 120,000 m², and became, in 2011, "the company's most modern plant in the world", says Benjamin Sicsú, the company's vice-president of new business for Latin America.

In Manaus, the company, which does not disclose the amount invested, started to verticalize the production of some items, such as the assembly of television frames.

The company also has been producing tablets in its Campinas unit since September 2010.

"Brazil is the fifth most profitable market for Samsung Electronics and we want to reach the third position in 18 months, behind only China and the U.S.," said Sicsú.

Another company, Samsung Heavy Industries, is a partner of Camargo Corrêa, Queiroz Galvão and PJMR in the Atlântico Sul shipyard -- the largest in the country -- in Suape, Pernambuco.

Source: Folha de S. Paulo