China Development Bank (CDB), the government-run bank for public works projects, plans to open an office in Brazil next year to invest in ports, steel mills and energy, Rio de Janeiro state Governor Sérgio Cabral says.

The bank expects to locate the branch in the city of Rio, home to the nation's state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), and Vale SA, the world's largest iron-ore producer, by the middle of 2010, Cabral said in a statement.

The Chinese bank agreed in May for a US$10 billion loan to Petrobras to be completed in 10 years. In return, Brazil agrees to export to China 200 thousand barrels of crude everyday, which totals 10 million tons a year. The deal starts from next year till 2019.

"China is building up ties with natural resource rich nations," said Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange, in a phone interview. "The United States is going to get increasingly isolated in terms of where the new and upcoming powers decide to invest."

Related information shows that China, the world's third-biggest economy, has become Brazil's leading trade partner this year after the global recession choked sales to the USA. The two countries' central banks are studying a proposal to use their own currencies -- the real and the yuan -- in bilateral trade so as to replace US dollar.

The press officer at the Chinese Embassy in Brazil declined to comment.

For more information, please consult the original coverage in Chinese at:

http://www.eeo.com.cn/finance/banking/2009/07/01/142321.shtml

(China.org.cn by Maverick Chen, July 2, 2009)