Brazil, others squeeze China in scramble for Africa

By Ed Cropley, African Investment Correspondent

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - China is leading the pack in the 21st century 'scramble for Africa' but anybody who thinks Beijing has the continent sewn up need only glance at the passport of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

By the time he first visited the European Union in 2007, four years after coming to office, Lula had racked up six trips to Africa, covering 16 countries.

Then, in July, he was guest of honour at an African Union summit in Libya, a reminder to Beijing ahead of its second Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Egypt on Nov. 8-9 that it is not alone in courting the continent and its raw materials.

Reflecting Lula's push, Brazil's annual trade with Africa has jumped from $3.1 billion in 2000 to $26.3 billion last year, a rate of growth outpaced only by China, which has seen two-way commerce soar tenfold this decade to $107 billion.

China has now eclipsed the United States as the continent's biggest trading partner.

"The balance of commercial power has shifted entirely," said Martyn Davies of Frontier Advisory, a South Africa-based consultancy for investors in emerging African markets.

"This is not something new -- it's just been accelerated by the economic crisis. It's towards inter-emerging market trade, rather than the traditional north-south trade."

It is not only Brazil and China that are muscling in on Africa. The two other members of the so-called BRICs grouping -- India and Russia -- are also setting up stall in a region that for generations European powers regarded as their own back yard.