14 May (Reuters) – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his dissatisfaction this Thursday with the fact that Vale is acquiring ships abroad as the government seeks to reactivate the country’s shipping industry.
‘I’m a little upset — and I’m going to talk to my partner (Gustavo) Pimenta, (president) of Vale — because Vale is buying ships in China. And it doesn’t make sense for us to make an immense effort to make the Brazilian shipyard work, and Vale, which is a company that was created by the Brazilian government, as a public, state-owned company, is generating jobs in China, complained Lula, while participating in a visit to the fertilizer factory in Bahia.
‘It’s not right with Brazil, it’s not right with the future’, he added.
When contacted, Vale did not respond immediately to a request and comment on Lula’s statement.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, in Brasília; Text by Maria Carolina Marcello; editing by Pedro Fonseca)
