Siemens do Brasil to enlarge transformers plant
Valor Econômico
The plant of transformers of the industrial complex of Siemens do Brasil in Jundiaí, São Paulo, will undergo a 20% expansion in its productive capacity and its area will increase another 2,500 square meters this year. The project is part of the budget estimated at something between US$ 150 million and US$ 200 million in investments in Brazil in 2010. Part of that budget also foresees the construction of a wind turbine plant, but that investment will only be defined once the contracts with the winners of the public bidding held in December are closed.
With that, the German company strengthens its investments in the energy sector in Brazil, an area that has not been disturbed even with the international financial crisis. For example, the company decided, at the beginning of last year, to keep the construction of its first plant of capacitors in the world, erected in Jundiaí as well, and it went into operation in December, with its entire 2010 production sold.
Capacitors are used in long distance transmission lines to relieve the tension in those moments when less energy is consumed. The investments in that plant resulted from the expectation of growth of the investment in lines of transmission of this kind in the country, which should happen after the holding of the biddings of the large hydroelectric plants. Siemens will not supply this type of equipment for the transmission lines of the Madeira River, which will connect the Plants of Santo Antônio and Jirau to the Southeast. But projects like the Tapajós and Teles Pires and other undertakings in the North have influenced the investment decision. "Over the next 20 years the internal market will have a considerable expansion", says Newton Duarte, energy director of the company.
Most of the production of capacitors of this plant will be exported in a first moment and it will work to supply the very projects Siemens already has in other countries. The company will no longer acquire capacitors from suppliers and should start supplying projects of transmission lines and substations in Brazil. For 2010, the company's expectation is also big, with the manufacture of wind turbines. In December, the Federal Government held the first wind power bidding and within the next 24 months nearly 2,000 megawatts (MW) will be installed and will require nearly one thousand wind turbines and estimated investments between R$ 7 billion (US$ 4.1 billion) and R$ 9 billion (US$ 5.2 billion). "Our investment will depend on the contracts we close", says Duarte.