Carriers renew fleet
Valor Econômico
The sector of road transportation was one of those that suffered the most with the crisis in the beginning of this year. In some segments, such as foreign trade, the retraction reached 40%, but the fall got to 10% in operations aimed at the retail, considered the most resistant to the crisis. That happens because the expansion - or retraction - of transportation is always a multiple of the growth of the GDP: several trips are required for the manufacture and sale of a product unit. In the road transportation sector there are those who calculate the ratio at three to one.
With the reversal of the setting of economic stagnation, the sector is now more than proportionally optimistic about the future. The volume of cargo has been increasing since September, new contracts appear and the sector already foresees an exceptional year as of December. In the major carriers, the investment plans to renew the fleet and get ready for a year of intenser activity are being taken out of the drawers. They are also taking advantage of the anti-cyclical policies as long as they last: since July, there are subsidized credit lines of the BNDES for the acquisition of trucks and for the so-called road implements - semi-trailers.
At the Expresso Mirassol carrier, focused on the transportation of industrial goods, such as cars, white line products and containers, the investment plans amount to R$ 20 million (US$ 11.6 million), R$ 18 million (US$ 10.5 million) of which will be used in the acquisition of 100 semi-trailers and 40 road tractors. The other R$ 2 million (US$ 1.16 million) will be used in auxiliary equipment - communication and management software. According to the Administrative Officer of the company, Celso Rodrigues Salgueiro Filho, the second half of this quarter already presented a clear recovery in the handling of cargo at Mirassol, and there is a trend of improvement until the end of the year, and of a 2010 of strong sales. Only with the contracts it already has, the company estimates growth of up to 35% in the handling of cargo in 2010 compared to this year.
At Atlas Transportes, also specialized in high added value products - pharmaceutics, auto-parts and electronic products - there is also a perspective of improvement in the sales next year, and with the favorable credit conditions, the idea is to move on to the fleet renewal plans. The company had plans to change part of its fleet of own trucks, nearly 500 small-sized trucks used in distribution, only next year. The company is trying to approve an investment plan of R$ 3.2 million (US$ 1.86 million) to renew its own fleet still in 2009 in order to take advantage of the conditions of the Finame (Special Agency for Industrial Financing) and cut in the IPI (Excise Tax). The fleet of larger trucks, of 800 vehicles, is made up mostly by independent truck drivers, and it had already gone through a renewal in 2008 - a R$ 10 million (US$ 5.8 million) investment for the acquisition of 140 semi-trailers.
Besides the effort of the large companies, the renewal of the fleet of trucks also takes place among the independent drivers and micro enterprises, main suppliers of the sector. The Government has cut the interest rate charged to the truck driver in the line aimed at this type of client by more than half, and the operations are also record breaking. The approved volume has been multiplied 10 times and should close October at almost R$ 200 million (US$ 116.3 million).