Favorable scenario guarantees sector best year of last five
Gazeta Mercantil - 05/13/2008
Industrias Romi has closed the first quarter of the year with 22% growth in its income, reaching R$ 152.9 million (US$ 89.9 million), and 38% increase in profit, amounting to R$ 25.9 million (US$ 15.2 million). Brazil's biggest manufacturer of tools and plastic injectors, the company has seen the amount of orders increase 16% compared to the same period of last year. In order to handle such expansion Romi raised R$ 230 million (US$ 119.2 million) in 2007 at the São Paulo Stock Exchange. The plans include the construction of a new unit. "While the market grew 16% this first quarter our sales increased 25%", said Hermes Lago, the Romi director of marketing of machines and tools. And Romi is only one of the industries going through the boom of the sector of machinery and equipment. This is a unique moment for this industry that is generally the first one to shrink in the beginning of a crisis and last one to prosper with the recovery of the economy. And it is exactly for this reason that the sector currently lives with results that has not seen for at least five years. In the first quarter alone the sales of the segment went nearly 40% up compared to the same period of 2007 and the apparent consumption grew almost 50%, according to data from the Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association (Abimaq). All that, plus the news of the achievement of the investment grade and the launching of the industrial policy, put the sector of machinery and equipment in state of complete euphoria, which can be seen in the halls of the next edition to the International Mechanics Fair, which begins today and ends on Saturday, at the Anhembi Exhibit Pavilion, in São Paulo. The event already stands out among the fairs held in Brazil for it operates, on the average, 10% of the annual sales of this industry that, only in 2007, amounted to R$ 61.6 billion (US$ 31.9 billion) (nearly 12.6% more than in 2006 and, according to Abimaq, a growth of 20% is expected for this year). In March, the entity announced that the sector of capital goods may invest R$ 9.3 billion (US$ 5.5 billion) this year, a volume which is also 20% above that seen in 2007. From that total, nearly R$ 6 billion (US$ 3.5 billion) will be intended for the acquisition of machinery and equipment for the very sector. Approximately 37.9% will be invested in technological modernization, 33.7% in the increase of the productive capacity and 22.9% in the replacement of obsolete machines. The rest will be invested in sundry areas.