Embraer discusses the production of HSTs in Brazil

The third largest producer of airplanes in the world, Embraer is now looking into the production of high-speed trains in Brazil.

At the beginning of March, the company invited Iñaki Barrón, the High Speed Manager at the UIC, to talk about the matter at the company’s plant in São José dos Campos, in the State of São Paulo.

The issues raised at the meeting included the expansion of the market for bullet trains at the expense of regional aviation, which is Embraer’s main market, and also the absorption of technology for the production of high-speed trains throughout the country.

Embraer informed, through the company’s Press Relations Department, that no studies have been conducted about this issue and that it is normal to call in specialists to give lectures to their employees. During the meeting, there was no mention of participation of this company in the auction for the first high-speed train line in Brazil (connecting Campinas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), planned for April of this year.

According to UIC studies presented to Embraer and later showcased at a seminar held in São Paulo, by 2025 the network of high-speed trains in the world is expected to have risen from about 14.7 thousand kilometers to close on 36 thousand kilometers in the world.

The main market for these trains are distances of up to 600 kilometers, many of which are now served by commercial flights using aircraft made by Embraer.

This segment accounts for 58% of the total income of the company, which in 2009 came to R$ 10.8 billion (US$ 6.47 billion), almost all from the export market. In distances of up to 600 kilometers, on existing tracks in Europe and Asia, trains have taken between 50% and 90% of passengers away from air travel.

Apart from the track between Campinas and Rio de Janeiro, passing through São Paulo, the Government has already started to consider three more bullet train lines, one between São Paulo and Curitiba, another between São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, and a third between Campinas and the Minas Gerais Triangle (Triângulo Mineiro). Only between São Paulo and the other three capital cities, the number of passengers transported by air in 2009, according to data released by the National Civil Aviation Agency (Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil – ANAC), came to 6.5 million passengers, or almost 13% of the total.

Technology

Another issue raised in the meeting was the absorption of technology for the manufacture of trains by Brazil. According to the rules of the tender for the first line, the consortium that wins the right to operate the track between Campinas, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo shall have to assign the technology to the Federal Government.

The Government intends to set up a Government company, Etav, to receive this technology, and has already said that it shall be establishing partnerships to distribute it to research centers and companies already established in the country, with the intention of having a national train. Any new tracks that could be created in Brazil would already have Brazilian technology.

A high speed train for 350 passengers costs an average of 23 million (about R$ 60 million) and its maintenance requires a bit more than the purchase cost throughout its usable life of some 30 years.

There are some 2,500 trains of this type now operational in the world, and 15 different companies from eight countries make the product, according to UIC data. An EMB-195 airplane, which is the largest produced by Embraer, with up to 122 seats, costs an average of US$ 40 million (R$ 66 million), which includes part of the maintenance costs.