09/22/2008 09h11
Demand for asphalt in Brazil is the biggest in the last 10 years
Valor Econômico - 09/22/2008
Asphalt and politics normally walk hand in hand on the same lanes in electoral years. There is peal of consumption of the product in pair years, when mayors, governors and the president release budgetary funds for paving works and maintenance of streets, avenues and roads. The strong demand of this year was finally reinforced by the federal investments schedule of the Program of Acceleration Growth (PAC) and investments of the private initiative in programs of highway concessions, like the São Paulo Rodoanel (Road Ring), Fernão Dias (São Paulo - Belo Horizonte) and Régis Bittencourt (São Paulo-Curitiba). The impulse for more asphalt also comes from the States. Minas Gerais got an R$ 2 billion (US$ 1.23 billion) loan from the World Bank (Bird) and the Interamerican Bank of Development (IBD) to pave 225 highways. São Paulo will invest nearly R$ 1 billion (US$ 613.5 million) between 2007 and 2009 to recover about 4.5 thousand kilometers of rural roads. The result is that the asphalt consumption is causing shortage and rationing of the product in certain regions. The problem has delayed the conclusion of some road paving works, necessary for the outflow of products and goods. The consumption of asphalt in 2008 should again reach the highest level in the last ten years, 1.85 million tons, according to data of the Brazilian Association of the Asphalt Distributing Companies (Abeda), which gathers two tens of companies, with 60 plants of asphalt industrialization in the country. Petrobrás, the only asphalt manufacturer in the country and owner of BR and now of Ipiranga Asfaltos, two of the biggest distributors of the sector, beat the record of production in July, when it processed 236 thousand tons in the nine refineries that produce the oil derived in the country. The previous Record was of September of 1998, when the state-owned company produced 211.5 thousand tons. Today, the state-owned company's asphalt production capacity is 2.5 million per year, sufficient to cover the Brazilian consumption. But the investment made by Petrobrás to modernize and expand its refinery park has affected the supply of the asphalt distributors.
