EU-DIGEST - special edition

Germany is investing in Latin American industry as never before. The Latin Business Chronicle reports that German daughter companies are producing 10 percent of the Brazilian industrial gross domestic product. Meanwhile, German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp AG is constructing a $4.6 billion giant steel-producing complex that will actively transform the mineral wealth of South America into vast amounts of steel products to be sold throughout Germany and Latin America by 2010. By that time, it will have taken 13,000 laborers a full four years to build.

Yet this massive investment project is about a whole lot more than just steel production. It is also about political cooperation between Germany and Brazil. The cooperation that is taking place between ThyssenKrupp AG and the Brazilian government is a means to further cement a business relationship that began all the way back in 1837. When Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came to visit the steel mill construction site this past February, the Chairman ThyssenKrupp’s steel producing arm, Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler, delivered a speech that recalled these long-standing ties. After recalling this history, he added, “The steel mill, which involves an investment of €3 billion, will be a solid basis for the continuation of these excellent relations.”

For the complete report from the Trumpet click on this link