Demanda e intensidade do uso de materiais básicos em economias recentemente industrializadas

Abstract

This thesis aims to assess the evolution of the long-term dynamics of demand for basic materials caused by the growth of some newly industrialized countries, especially China. The underlying assumption is that the demand for materials may vary according to the level of economic development. One of the possible effects of Chinese growth on the Brazilian economy is the re-insertion into the world economy through the supply of basic commodities. Despite strong dynamical effects that the growth of demand for these materials has exercised in this century on several economies producing these goods, it remains the question about the long-term continuity of this movement. The historical experience of the most advanced countries points to the prospect of decrease in intensity of use of some materials as a result of changes in consumption patterns. It should therefore assess whether, in a wider horizon, this reduction can spread through some newly industrializing economies and limit the dynamism whose international insertion is specialized in supplying these materials. For this, the research methodology relied on reviews of the literature on the theory of development and intensity of materials use in countries with different degrees of industrialization. Moreover, empirical surveys allowed to compose a framework of quantitative information for paper and paperboard, steel, cement and aluminum that served as input for the construction of indicators of intensity of use. The conclusions of the study point to a decrease in the intensity of use in developed countries, featuring an ongoing process of dematerialization. Already in some newly industrializing economies like China, in two of the four studied materials - cement and steel - the perspective is clearly exhaustion of the dynamism due to the growth in Chinese consumption.