The Brazilian Railroad Industry Association (Abifer) announced revenues of $2.13 billion in 2012, worth slightly above the $2.08 billion from the previous year. However, in the same period, there was a decrease in the productivity of the industry. The volume of manufactured cars, which totaled 5,616 units in 2011, rose to 2,918 last year. The passenger coaches totaled 207, as opposed to 336 in 2011, and locomotives, in turn, added 70 new units, compared with 113 in the previous year.
We had smaller volumes in the manufacture of new equipment, but we were surprised by the increase in contracted services for modernization of passenger coaches, locomotives and cars, in addition to sales slightly larger in the area of permanent way (ties, turnouts, fastener clips, among others). Thus, there was some compensation in sales, the president of Abifer, Vincent Abate, told to Agência CNT de Notícias.
The sector has good expectations for 2013, and expects to reach $2.43 billion in revenue with high production: expectation for three thousand cars, 350-400 passenger coaches and 100 locomotives.
We are very optimistic about the federal government’s announcements on the railroad industry, which will continue to grow. But the bids will still occur, and it takes time to influence in terms of equipment. In the construction of roads that will reflect faster. By the time the railroads are built and begin operating, we undoubtedly expect a considerable increase in demand for equipment, Abate said.
Still according to him, the long-term forecast also expects linear growth, because the country needs to renew its fleet of cars, passenger coaches and locomotives. The metro in São Paulo, for example, turns 39 in 2013 and has cars almost at that age. There are two ways to renew the fleet: buying new equipment or modernizing the older ones by upgrading, putting air conditioning, wider doors, all embedded technology that did not exist before. This modernization costs from 50 to 60% of the price of a new train and provides more 20 to 30 years of service life with them, said the president of Abifer.
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