Crisis is already past for Tigre and Amanco
Valor Econômico
The first months of the second half show the sector of pipes and fittings has definitely left the world economic crisis behind. With the high demand mainly in the real estate segment, the companies have started hiring again, increased the working hours in part of their units in Joinville, one of the main centers of production of this segment in the country, and there are even estimates of a third quarter stronger than last year's.
The weakening of the world economic crisis led both Amanco and Tigre to recently adopt the 6X2 system in some of production lines in Joinville. This means that part of these units started operating on Sundays as well. The employees work six days and have two days off. Amanco adopted the 6X2 system in 50% of the units located in the neighborhood of Floresta and in 20% of the plant located in the neighborhood of Glória. The company has also increased the overtime hours, mainly in the distribution. Besides the Joinville units, in June Amanco adopted the 6X2 system in Sumaré (SP) and, in August, it also implemented it in Suape (PE).
On its turn, Tigre has also implemented the 6X2 system in some lines of the Joinville units, but it does not disclose the percentage. "The year is much better than what was imagined it might be", said the company CEO, Evaldo Dreher. In the real estate segment, Tigre had "performance above the budgeted" in July and August, altough, in the infrastructure segment, it is below the expected. For the year, Tigre's estimate is to grow 6%.
According to Dreher, the infrastructure branch has not improved as much as expected due to the slow pace of the investments of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC, in Portuguese). But he believes it may change next year. Tigre already makes plans to increase the capacity by 20% in 2010, believing in the continuance of a positive trend for the sector. In total, it should invest R$ 200 million (US$ 108.1 million) in 2010, a bigger volume than the R$ 150 million (US$ 81.1 million) invested in 2009. This year, the company increased the capacity by 15%. Amanco, on its turn, which increase its capacity by 20% this year, has not outlined the plans for 2010 yet, but they say the budget may possibly be more substantial than in 2009. The investments of the company this year amounted to R$ 111 million (US$ 60 million).