Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/103862
Major Investments in Brazil M acro-economic data paint a picture of Brazil achieving evident progress: sixth world economy and GDP up in 2011 by 2.7 percent. The facts and figures more specifically concerning the construction equipment market are no less impressive: Brazil today represents 3.5-4 percent of the world market (and 40 percent of the market in Latin America). Demand for new machinery focuses on the construction sector (70-80 percent, compared to 10-15 percent for the mining industry and 5-10 percent for agriculture). Rapid and constant growth was achieved, with reference to data processed by Sobratema (the Brazilian Construction Machinery and Technology Association), thanks to performances posted in the five-year period 2007-2011. Looking at the entire machinery field (including trucks), 44 sales during the same period increased from 34,500 to 84,295 units (18 percent from 2010 to 2011, with a forecast of an additional 5 percent in 2012, equal to 88,565 units). Significant increases were posted in the earth moving field, from 11,800 units in 2007 to 29,695 in 2011 (the 2011 figure is up 9 percent from 27,175 units in 2010), of which about 30 percent was imports, with a forecast of a 10 percent increase in 2012 over the previous year (32,655 units). The Sobratema Study Centre has developed forecasts for trends in the sector for the period 2011-2016. Demand for construction machinery (thousand units/year) will achieve a 50 percent increase from 84,000 to 126,000 units (the breakdown by area is: infrastructures, 36,000 increases to 55,000; civil building, 32,000 increases to 47,000; mining industry, 12,000 increases to 18,000; agriculture, 4,000 increases to 6,000). From now through to 2016, Brazil has scheduled major changes in the second version of the Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC-2), the fouryear plan of the Brazilian Government in response to hosting the Football World Cup in 2014 and the XXI Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. PAC-2 covers action within the scope of construction, energy, transport and logistics fields from 2011 until 2014 with overall funds (according to a Federal Government announcement in March 2010) estimated at US$ 795.25 billion (60.3 percent - $479.45 billion in the period 2001-2014 and the remaining 39.7 percent - $315.80 billion after 2014). Following the discovery along its coastlines of major reserves of petroleum and gas, Brazil has by now become the ninth largest world exporter of crude oil: US$ 111 billion will be set aside for new drilling work (until 2020) in the section of coast between Rio and São Paulo. There will also be expansion in the mining sector, with investments of $68.5 billion. Work began in April 2011 (with an expected completion date of February 2015) on the Belo Monte dam (River Xingu), the third largest hydroelectric catchment area in the world, which will cost US$ 10.6 billion. Two other dams are currently under construction along the River Madeira: Santo Antonio (US$ 4.4 billion) and Jirau (US$ billion). Regarding transport, 811 projects will be set in motion from 2012 onwards: ports and waterways (US$ 47.5 billion, the cargo port of Açu under construction is the largest in Latin America), railways IDA UNIVERSAL January-February 2013