Sale of machinery for heavy construction accumulates 16% increase until June
Valor Econômico
The execution of major works, such as the plants of Belo Monte and Santo Antônio and Jirau, in the Madeira River, and infrastructure projects related to the holding of the Olympics and the FIFA Soccer World CupTM in the country led to a performance beside the expected by the manufacturers, distributors and rental companies of machinery and equipment for heavy construction. The figures are of the Abimaq (Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association), entity that represents the industry, show the opportunities have been taken advantage of and it is expected that the new round of investments strengthens the sector. The activity is already attracting the interest of the private equity funds that have discovered the new niche: GG Investimentos, which has the former Minister, Antonio Kandir, among its partners has just injected R$ 55 million (US$ 30.6 million) in Geradora Aluguel de Máquinas (a machinery rental company).
From January to May, according to the Abimaq, the nominal sales of the industry grew 15.9% compared to the same period of 2009 and the level of use of the installed capacity reached 81.9% in May. Such performance reflects on the balance sheet of distributors of heavy construction equipment such as Tracbel, and rental companies, such as Solaris, which is increasing its portfolio to take advantage of the good time in the sector.
In the mid-2000s, Tracbel, a Minas Gerais group and currently the main distributor of the division of heavy construction of Volvo, launched a bold growth plan. Between 2005 and 2010, it went from five units in three States to 25 units covering 11 States - with that, it began catering to São Paulo and the Northern region, large consumers. It broke a record in revenue in 2008, but as expected, the year 2009 was weak, with a fall of 16% in the sales. 2010 it not over yet, but it is promising: in the first half, compared to the same period of the prior year, the earnings increased 110%.
All the sales of the construction and equipment division of Volvo should go through its distributors, which gives Tracbel a good map of the growth of the sector in the country. Besides the large builders - Camargo Corrêa, Odebrecht and OAS among them -, which were already making many acquisitions, the novelty this year was the resumption of the orders from mining-related companies, such as Vale and Votorantim and service renderers in the field. According to Luiz Gustavo Pereira, Vice President of Tracbel, the forecast is to close 2009 with revenues of R$ 600 million (US$ 333 million), growth of 40% compared to 2009. The plan is more ambitious in the long term: close 2013 with earnings of R$ 10 billion (US$ 556 million).
Last year, the company put it practice an investment plan of R$ 100 million (US$ 56 million) in order to increase its fleet intended for rental - the activity assures the group R$ 15 million (US$ 8.3 million) in earnings - and enlarge the facilities of six of its largest sales and maintenance units. It is the largest investment plan of the group.