Brazilian State Bank to Finance Ethanol Plant in Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO – State-owned Banco do Brasil will finance construction of an ethanol plant in Colombia, Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo reported Tuesday.

The $223 million loan was approved last weekend and will be made through the Brazilian bank’s export-finance program for small firms, the newspaper said.

Israel’s Merhav, which is building the plant in Colombia, will use the funds to purchase equipment from the Brazilian company Uni-Systems.

Brazil is the world’s leading producer of ethanol from sugarcane and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government has promoted agreements with several Latin American and African countries to share the technology used in production of biofuels.

The loan from Banco do Brasil – with interest tied to the Libor rate, currently less than 1 percent – “is much cheaper than if we took out the loan in Colombia or the United States,” the chief of the Colombian project, Jorge Chavez, told O Estado. EFE

source: laht