The new ruling, passed June 3, gives Brazilian government owned power company Eletrobras (EBR), along with national and international equipment partners, the ability to buy capital goods, building materials, infrastructure materials and nuclear industry specific technologies for use in energy generation without having to pay the IPI, or industrial production tax, nor tariffs on imported goods.

FORBES: Brazil's Senate OKs Tax Breaks for Nuclear Power

This year Architecture 2030 introduced the 2030 Challenge for Products, which set benchmarks for reducing the carbon footprint of materials used in the building industry.

FORBES: Can Voluntary Sustainability Change the World?

Building materials company USG compounded worries about the industry, saying that the housing market was being burdened by an excess supply of new and used homes.

BBC: A house for sale in Illinois

Tsuga is placing big hopes on the home building materials and white goods sales in the near term and auto industry sales further out.

FORBES: Japan's Samurai CEOs (1) Panasonic's Tsuga Kazuhiro

But last week's manoeuvrings around Saint-Gobain and Lafarge, two large building-materials firms, provide evidence of how much things have changed in French industry.

ECONOMIST: Business in France