ALL to invest up to US$ 398 million in 2008
Valor Econômico - 02/25/2008
ALL - América Latina Logística, with operations in Brazil and Argentina on a railroad network with 21 thousand km of rails, will make this year its greatest program of investments. It is expected the outlay of up to R$ 700 million (US$ 398 million). Most of this value will be destined to the railroads in Brazil. The money will be used to improve the fleet of locomotives, which already exceeds a thousand machines, for the renovation and recovery of old wagons and the acquisition of new ones and in the modernization of the lines, mainly of segments of the old Brasil Ferrovias (Brazil Railways), acquired in May, 2006. The cargo's offer grows year after year and the perspective for 2008 is even more promising, evaluates the concessionaire. This year, the forecast is that the cargo to be carried by ALL increases from 12% to 14% over the volume of 2007, with greater participation profit in the port of Santos. In the past, the figures that will be published until the end of the month may show an expansion above 10% in the volume of transported cargo. ALL practically doubled its size since the acquisition of the assets of the Brasil Ferrovias group through a merger and assumption of debts operation. The total carried is already near 40 million annual tons, with strong weight of grains. When it acquired the rails of the Ferronorte (in Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso), connected to the Ferroban (in São Paulo) and the Novoeste (São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul), ALL got access to the port of Santos. This railroad network transports cargo from the Midwest and from São Paulo. Besides the incorporation of at least 50 new locomotives to the fleet, ALL ordered 250 tank wagons for the transport of fuel and alcohol on the rails of Ferroban and Ferronorte made the importation of 30 thousand tons of rails for the renewal of 500 km of lines of Ferroban. Regarding only to alcohol, the goal is to triple the cargo volume this year, with cargo from São Paulo and from Mato Grosso do Sul. The company officer explains that in two more years, according to the acquisition plan, the network incorporated from the Brasil Ferrovias will be completely integrated with the ALL standard, including all locomotives and wagons displaying the red-colored symbol of the railroad. ALL went public in 2004 and more than 60% of its shares are pulverized in the stock market. "Every operational index has already improved. In the old Novoeste, the volume has already doubled, and in Mato Grosso and São Paulo we are progressing conquering new cargo operations", says the officer. Only with the agreement entered into with Votorantim Celulose e Papel (VCP), R$ 300 million (US$ 170.5 million) will be invested in a segment of 450 km between Três Lagoas (MS) and Bauru (SP). This guaranteed a 20 year contract to transport 1.3 million tons of cellulose to be produced in the new VCP plant in Três Lagoas from 2009 on.