Cummins to invest US$ 200 million in Brazil in five years
Valor Econômico
Over the next five years, Cummins will invest more than US$ 200 million in Brazil. Part of the resources will be invested in new industrial facility, whose location will be set in a few days. The CEO of the American company, Tim Solso, was in Guarulhos, yesterday, two days after having attended, in Brasilia, the meeting of the Forum of senior executives, which occupied part of the visit of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Cummins needs more space to increase the production. The new plant will consume nearly US$ 60 million and it receive lines that currently occupy the main facility, a building built five decades ago along Via Dutra, a few kilometers from the airport of Cumbica.
Solso, who spent four months in Brazil in the beginning of the 70s, remembers that at that time the region "seemed a rural area". The movement of vehicles, which currently suffocates the road of access to the entrance of the company, tells the Executive that bottlenecks may threaten the economic growth of the country. But at the same time, it also represents a perspective of good businesses to a company that in 2010 earned more than US$ 13 billion in the markets for diesel engines and power generation. For him, sectors such as construction, agriculture, mining and offshore, areas of operations of Cummins should benefit from investments in infrastructure, a priority, he says, in a country that will host the 2014 World Cup, and the Olympics, two years later.
As it had already been decided by local direction, the area that will host the new plant should be located at no more than 40 kilometers from the headquarters of the company. The line of energy generators and refurbishment will be relocated there. The old building will be renovated, with investment of nearly US$ 50 million, and it will concentrate the production of diesel engines. In neighborhoods very near the headquarters there are another two smaller facilities in operation - one that produces filters and another one built to shelter emission systems.
Thus, Cummins has managed to wiggle out the lack of capacity investing in the neighborhood. "Our suppliers and clients are concentrated in the region", says Luis Pasquotto, Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the company in Brazil. The country concentrates most of the company businesses in Latin America, a region responsible for nearly 10% of its annual earnings. The American group has smaller facilities in Argentina, Peru and Chile, in partnerships with local businesses. The program of investments for Brazil in the next five years includes, according to Solso, the purchase of new equipment for plants and laboratories.