Metallurgy in the brazilian Amazon: alternatives for activities with scarce ecological prudence (Paper 157)

Resumo

The state strategic attempts at modernization in the Amazon during the 80‘s were of key importance for the launching of social actors in the region, among them the metallurgy industries. These producers — using charcoal as input and produce pig iron only — were relocated to the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Until then, such producers were almost exclusively located in the Brazilian southeast. They were called independent companies. They were different from the metallurgy companies called integrate, which operated in a larger scale manufacturing iron ore until the final product. In function of the high participation of the charcoal in the production costs, independent companies prefer to acquire charcoal originating from the native forest. As a consequence of this strategy, part of the biomass gathered in a deforested area of approximately 390 thousand hectares per year is carried to the metallurgy industry furnaces. Besides the pressure exercised on the forest, the implantation of these pig iron producers favoured the land concentration, contributes to the social dynamics reinforcing the chaos in the several urban spaces, the land conflicts, intensifying low wages and unhealthy working conditions. Such dynamics allows a cheap charcoal and pig iron production and represents a transfer of private costs to the society.

Keywords: Amazônia. Regional development. Metallurgy. Deforestation. Charcoal.