Energy

The Top 10 Biggest Companies in Brazil

Published

1 year ago

October 8, 2021

Omri Wallach

Graphics/Design:

Rosey Eason

The Top 10 Biggest Companies in Brazil

In 2009, the at-the-time emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China held their first formal summits as members of BRIC (with South Africa joining in 2010).

Together, BRICS represents 26.7% of the world’s land surface and 41.5% of its population. By GDP ranking, they’re also some of the most powerful economies in the world.

But what drives their economies? We’re highlighting the top 10 biggest companies in each country, starting with Brazil .

What Are the Biggest Public Companies in Brazil?

Brazil isn’t just one of the largest and most diverse countries in the world, it is also an economic powerhouse.

With over 213 million people, Brazil is the sixth most populous country on Earth and the largest in Latin America. It’s also the wealthiest on the continent, with the world’s 12th-largest economy.

Once a colony focused on sugar and gold, Brazil rapidly industrialized in the 20th century. Today, it is a top 10 exporter of industrial steel , with the country’s economic strength coming chiefly from natural resources and financials.

Here are Brazil’s biggest public companies by market capitalization in October 2021:

Top 10 Companies (October 2021)	Category	Market Cap (USD)
Vale	Metals and Mining	$73.03B
Petróleo Brasileiro	Oil and Gas	$69.84B
Ambev	Drinks	$43.87B
Itaú Unibanco	Financial	$41.65B
Banco Bradesco	Financial	$34.16B
WEG	Industrial Engineering	$29.43B
BTG Pactual	Financial	$25.01B
Banco Santander Brasil	Financial	$24.70B
Rede D’Or Sao Luiz	Hospital	$23.79B
XP Inc.	Financial	$22.45B

At the top of the ranking is Vale , a metals and mining giant that is the world’s largest producer of iron ore and nickel. Also the operator of infrastructure including hydroelectricity plants, railroads, and ports, It consistently ranks as the most valuable company in Latin America.

Vale and second-ranking company Petróleo Brasileiro , Brazil’s largest oil producer, were former state-owned corporations that became privatized in the 1990s.

Finance in Brazil’s Top 10 Biggest Companies

Other than former monopolies, the top 10 biggest companies in Brazil highlight the power of the banking sector.

Five of the 10 companies with a market cap above $20 billion are in the financial industry.

They include Itaú Unibanco , the largest bank in the Southern Hemisphere, and Banco Santander Brasil , the Brazilian subsidiary of Spanish finance corp.

Another well-known subsidiary is brewing company Ambev , which produces the majority of the country’s liquors and also bottles and distributes PepsiCo products in much of Latin America. Ambev is an important piece of Belgian drink juggernaut Anheuser-Busch InBev , which is one of the world’s largest 100 companies .

Noticeably missing from the top 10 list are companies in the agriculture sector, as Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of coffee , soybeans, beef, and ethanol. Many multinational corporations have Brazilian subsidiaries or partners for supply chain access, which has recently put a spotlight on Amazon deforestation.

What other companies or industries do you associate with Brazil?

Correction: Two companies listed had errors in their market cap calculations and have been updated. All data is as of October 11, 2021.

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Energy

Map: Oil and Gas Spills in the U.S. Since 2010

Oil and gas spills can be messy, but where are they most likely to occur? This graphic looks at oil and gas spills in the U.S. since 2010.

Creator Program

Published

27 mins ago

March 13, 2023

Aran Ali

Mapped: Oil and Gas Spills in the U.S. Since 2010

The recent energy crisis has highlighted the integral role that hydrocarbons play in fueling the modern world, but these fossil fuels still come with their fair share of downsides.

Aside from the obvious climate impact they bring, one other downside in particular is spills, which can lead to ecological and economic damage. These can happen due to pipeline leaks, train derailments , or other industrial disasters.

This graphic from Preyash Shah provides a visual overview of every oil and gas spill in the contiguous U.S. since 2010. Data is tracked by the U.S. government’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

U.S. Oil and Gas Spills (2010‒2022)

The majority of spills that have occurred come mostly from crude oil , followed by petroleum products and gas. Note that this data covers the quantity of spills and not damages or volume.

Spills by Product Type	Portion of all U.S. Spills
Crude oil	51%
Petroleum products	32%
Diesel	14%
Gasoline	13%
Others	5%
Highly volatile liquids & flammable gas	16%
Liquefied petroleum gas / natural gas liquids	8%
Other highly volatile liquids	6%
Anhydrous ammonia	2%
Others	3%
Carbon dioxide	2%
Biofuel	1%

Data figures add to 102% due to rounding errors, bolded figures represent the sum of subcategories

Crude oil, which makes up just over half of documented spills, is also one of the most costly. Contaminations can persist for years after a spill, and its impact on local mammals and waterfowl is particularly harsh.

This has been the case with the Deepwater Horizon spill (also known as the “BP oil spill”), which experts say is still causing harm in the Gulf of Mexico.

Other products with lots of spills include petroleum products such as diesel or gasoline, as well as liquefied natural gas or other volatile liquids. Interestingly, liquefied carbon dioxide can also be transported in pipelines , commonly used for carbon capture storage, but requires high pressure to maintain its state.

When looking at the location of spills, it’s clear that the South Central states have experienced the highest number of disasters. In contrast, the West Coast has had substantially less activity. However, this makes much more sense when looking at the dominant oil producing states , where Texas and surrounding neighbors reign supreme.

Rank	State	Oil & Gas Spills (2010-2022)
1	Texas	1936
2	Oklahoma	407
3	Louisiana	297
4	California	253
5	Kansas	208
6	Illinois	181
7	Wyoming	155
8	New Jersey	128
9	New Mexico	114
10	North Dakota	98
11	Indiana	93
12	Minnesota	83
13	Ohio	82
14	Pennsylvania	71
15	Iowa	66
16	Missouri	65
17	Michigan	56
18	Colorado	55
19	Mississippi	53
20	Montana	46
21	Wisconsin	42
22	Alabama	36
23	Arkansas	33
24	Newbraska	31
25	Georgia	28
26	Virginia	27
27	North Carolina	24
28	Kentucky	21
29	South Carolina	19
30	Alaska	16
30	New York	16
32	Tennessee	15
33	South Dakota	14
33	Washington	14
35	Florida	13
36	Maryland	11
37	Utah	9
38	Idaho	8
38	Oregon	8
40	Hawaii	7
41	West Virginia	6
42	Massachesueuts	3
43	Conneticut	2
43	Maine	2
43	Nevada	2
43	Puerto Rico	2
47	Arizona	0
47	Delaware	0
47	New Hampshire	0
47	Vermont	0

Of the 4,901 spills during this period, Texas accounts for 1,936 or roughly 40% of all oil and gas spills . This is followed by Oklahoma, which has had 407 spills and is one of the largest net exporters of oil and gas in the country.

What Causes Spills?

Oil and gas spills actually have a surprisingly long history, with one of the earliest dating back to 1889 , when a spill was reported on the coast between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Causes have consisted primarily of weather, natural disasters, equipment and technological malfunction, as well as human error.

However, they only became a widespread problem around the halfway mark of the 20th century, when petroleum extraction and production really began to take off. This era also saw the emergence of supertankers, which can transport half a million tons of oil but therefore make the risk of spills even costlier.

In fact, the biggest spill off U.S. waters after the Deepwater Horizon disaster is the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, when a tanker crashed into a reef and 11 million gallons of oil spilled into the Pacific Ocean.