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Tag: latam

  • DB Schenker offers charter flights to Latin America

    DB Schenker offers charter flights to Latin America

    Starting this week DB Schenker will offer additional charter capacities across the Atlantic. The new route starts from the Netherlands and reaches Brazil after two stopovers in the US. In South America, direct connections to Argentina and Chile are available. The weekly freight charter flight provides 50 tonnes of capacity and expands DB Schenker’s growing intercontinental flight network.

    Every Sunday night, the flight leaves Amsterdam (AMS) and stops in New York City (JFK) and Miami (MIA) on Monday before reaching Viracopos (VCP) near São Paulo on the same day. On Tuesdays, a direct connection can be made to Buenos Aires (EZP), and Santiago de Chile (SCL) can be reached on Wednesdays. An airline partner will be operating the new transatlantic route with Boeing 767 freighter jets. The charter flight’s stopover in Miami allows access to numerous further destinations in the operating carrier’s portfolio.

    The first bookings include a diverse range of goods, including many automotive parts. DB Schenker said emperature-controlled cargo and dangerous goods can also be transported upon request. Within Europe, the flights seamlessly connect to the forwarder’s land transportation network.

  • Inflation Drives LatAm Nations to be Top Markets for Binance

    Inflation Drives LatAm Nations to be Top Markets for Binance

    Rising inflation and a strengthening dollar have driven Latin American countries to become market leaders for crypto giant Binance.

    Now that we are seeing inflation ramping up worldwide, we are seeing that more and more people are seeking cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, as a way to protect themselves from inflation, said Maximiliano Hinz, Binance’s head in Latin America.

    According to Hinz, Latin American countries have become the top markets for Binance, such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, where annual inflation is 90 percent.

    Overall, Latin America and the Caribbean posted an inflation rate of nearly 9.8 percent in 2021, according to data compiled by Statista.

    While a number of Latin American nations have yet to pass meaningful crypto legislation, unlike El Salvador which made headlines for adopting bitcoin as legal tender, Hinz does not necessarily view this as an issue.

    Regulation is a framework, but it’s not always negative that something isn’t regulated, he said. If something isn’t banned, then it’s legal.

  • Mastercard focuses on Southeast Asia, LatAm after India ban, Russia exit

    Mastercard focuses on Southeast Asia, LatAm after India ban, Russia exit

    Southeast Asia and Latin America are strong growth regions for Mastercard after its withdrawal from Russia in March and India’s 2021 ban on it from issuing new cards, the company’s co-president for international markets said.

    “Southeast Asia is exciting (due to) the right demographics, the adoption of technology and digitisation, and governments’ focus on financial inclusion,” Ling Hai told the Reuters Global Markets Forum, adding that countries in the region would also benefit as supply chains shift away from China.

    India’s central bank banned Mastercard after declaring it “non-compliant” with the country’s 2018 rules that required foreign card networks to store Indian payments data locally for “unfettered supervisory access”.

    “Our sense is we are getting really close to a resolution,” Hai said on the India ban, adding that the company was working “very constructively” with the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

    Hai said Mastercard was ready to comply with India’s local data-storage rules. “The goal is to be 100% compliant. Anything we need to localise in India, we are taking tangible steps to get there.”

    Mastercard says India is a key growth market and has invested $2 billion in the country since 2014 to build technology centres and support innovation in digital payments.

    Mastercard suspended operations in Russia – a market that accounted for roughly 4% its net revenue in 2021 – in March, over its invasion of Ukraine.

    In Russia, if an opportunity arose to improve rules and regulations in areas such as financial inclusion, sustainability and data privacy, Mastercard will “work towards changing them together with other stakeholders in the ecosystem, including the government themselves”, Hai said.

    Hai also said that Europe was an exciting market for the company due to its post-COVID economic recovery and the scope of innovation that the continent offers.

    Besides geography, the payment network company is also focusing on high-growth parts of the business, such as business-to-business payments flows, telecommunications and retail.

  • Shopee scales up Brazil operations, eyes Latam potential – sources

    Shopee scales up Brazil operations, eyes Latam potential – sources

    Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Southeast Asia’s SEA Ltd, is scaling up its operations in Brazil and evaluating the long-term potential of Latin American markets, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

    Shopee, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia according to market researchers, launched a small presence in Brazil in late 2019 as a pilot initiative of its cross-border team.

    The company is now growing its presence and moving executives from Southeast Asia to Brazil said the sources who were briefed on the matter but declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak to media.

    The Singapore-headquartered technology group’s shares surged more than 400% in 2020, taking its market capitalization to $120 billion. It raised close to $3 billion in a stock offering last month.

    On Linkedin, Shopee is currently recruiting for over three dozen positions in Brazil. Pine Kyaw, formerly country managing director for Shopee’s high-growth Vietnam unit, is listed on the job platform as having become Shopee Brazil country head. Kyaw could not be reached for comment.

    SEA Chief Corporate Office Yanjun Wang told an investor call in November that Shopee Brazil, while cross-border driven, was now being used by local sellers.