Companies in Rio de Janeiro

Vale is one of the world's largest mining companies and the global leader in iron ore and nickel production. Founded in 1942 as Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the Brazilian state-owned miner was privatized in 1997 and is now headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, employing roughly 67,000 people across operations in Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, and several African countries. The company's iron ore flows from the Carajás complex in the Amazon region, where ore grades exceed 65% iron — among the highest in the world — and is shipped from ports in northern Brazil to steelmakers across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Vale is also a top-tier producer of nickel, copper, and cobalt, critical inputs for electric-vehicle batteries and stainless steel, and operates the world's largest pellet plants feeding blast furnaces. For procurement teams in steelmaking, battery manufacturing, and infrastructure, Vale is the anchor supplier of raw materials: its long-term contracts, port logistics, and blending capabilities make it the benchmark for iron-ore pricing worldwide.

Petrobras is Brazil's state-controlled oil and gas company and one of the largest energy corporations in the world, founded in 1953 by President Getúlio Vargas to secure Brazil's energy independence. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, the company employs about 45,000 people and produces roughly 2.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, ranking among the top ten oil producers globally.\n\nPetrobras's defining achievement is deepwater production: its pre-salt fields beneath the Atlantic Ocean floor, discovered in 2006, sit under 2,000 meters of water and 5,000 meters of rock and salt, and the company's engineering — floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, subsea trees, and flow assurance — is the most advanced in the industry. The Búzios field alone produces more than 600,000 barrels per day, and the company operates the largest fleet of FPSOs on earth. It also runs 13 refineries, a vast natural-gas network, and growing biofuels and renewables businesses.\n\nFor energy-industry suppliers, Petrobras is one of the world's most demanding and lucrative customers: its subsea and drilling programs procure billions of dollars annually in equipment, from blowout preventers to subsea manifolds, and its local-content requirements have built an entire Brazilian offshore supply chain.