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Travel to any country in Latin America and you will see the visible hand of China at work: a computer manufacturing plant in Mexico, a copper mine in Peru, a football stadium in Costa Rica. In the year 2007, the thought of China in Latin America would have appeared, at best, improbable. But in a three-year stretch, China signed free trade agreements with Chile, Peru and Costa Rica, inked billions of dollars worth of deals in oil and mining projects throughout the region, and supplanted the US as Brazil's biggest trading partner. Once almost unseen in Latin America, China’s bilateral trade has risen from $12bn in 2000 to well over $150bn today.Given the importance of its new Asian friend, Latin Americans are rolling out the red carpets to Chinese business delegations and jumping on planes not only to Beijing but also to Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Tianjin.Complete Story »

Rohan C. Pease submits:A slew of reports and articles came out today in support of rising prices for steelmaking ingredients, including coking coal, iron ore and Moly. These indicators are bullish for commodity prices.I closely follow iron ore news, and today Companhia Vale (VALE) put a huge dent in the benchmark pricing structure by striking a deal with domestic steelmakers to increase the benchmark contract by 80%. The move signifies to China that it should be able to cover the same increase as their domestic mills. China will be hesitant to agree to such a high number, even though an 80% increase is still considerably lower than current spot rates. The move puts Vale and BHP Billiton (BHP) on the same page and may lead to a more flexible pricing system for iron ore, shattering the benchmark pricing system in place for four decades. It's about time: Iron ore is the world's second-largest commodity market behind crude oil. Until last year, it was a market without futures/swaps contracts - what a momentous shift!Complete Story »