Brazil embraces third wave of Chinese investment

"Brazil has a need for almost $1 trillion in investment in infrastructure and urban projects. Chinese companies are interested in and have enough appetite for such opportunities," said Jose Mario Antunes, executive officer of the National Transports Confederation in Beijing.

Antunes and Belli said that although Brazil is going through a political and economic crisis, the turmoil won't endanger trade with China and Chinese investments in the country.

"The Chinese investors know the potential of the Brazilian economy in the long term and will continue their investment from this point of view," said Belli.

Economist Luis Afonso Lima, head of the Brazilian Society for Transnational Companies and Globalization Studies (Sobeet), told O Globo that Chinese investments in Brazil tend to increase in the medium and long terms.

Besides the interest in railways, Chinese companies are active in other parts of Brazil's transportation system. BYD is set to enter the electric bus market, and in Rio the subway and urban train systems are purchasing Chinese products.

Chinese companies are also involved in the oil exploration in Brazil. The consortium which won the right to explore Brazil's largest pre-salt oil camp, Libra, has two Chinese companies — CNOOC and CNPC, along with Total, Shell and Brazil's own state-controlled oil giant Petrobras.