Sao Paulo

São Paulo 

a state in southeastern Brazil. Area, 247,900 sq km. Population, 17.7 million (1970), 63 percent of which is urban. The capital is the city of São Paulo.

Located in the southeastern part of the Brazilian Highlands, São Paulo has a tropical climate. Average monthly temperatures range between 14°C-19°C and 20°C-26°C. Annual precipitation varies from 1,200 mm to 1,500 mm. Most of the state is covered with mixed coniferous and hardwood forests; the interior regions have savannas and steppes.

São Paulo is economically the most developed state in Brazil, accounting for more than 50 percent of the country’s total industrial production and about one-third of the electric power plant capacity and output. Among the principal branches of industry are machine building, which accounts for more than four-fifths of the country’s total automotive production, and metallurgy, which supplies more than two-fifths of the aluminum, more than one-fourth of the steel and rolled ferrous metals, and about one-sixth of the cast iron produced in Brazil. The state also accounts for more than three-fifths of the country’s paper and pulp production and approximately one-third of the cement production. São Paulo also ranks high in food processing and the manufacture of cotton and silk textiles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Most industrial enterprises are concentrated in the urban agglomeration around the city of São Paulo.

São Paulo also accounts for more than 40 percent of Brazil’s agricultural output. Large-scale landholding predominates, and capitalist relations are more developed here than in other states. Coffee, sugarcane, and cotton are grown for export, and crops such as corn, cassava, beans, and citrus fruits are raised for domestic consumption. Livestock are raised on natural pas-turelands and near the cities. There is fishing along the coast. Santos is the state’s main seaport.

E. I. MARTYNOVA