The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) announced a loan of US$ 18.7 million for the purchase of 249 railway wagons to be used in agriculture.
According to the bank’s press advisory, the acquisition will contribute to improve the logistics infrastructure for the transportation of grains in the Southern region of the country, especially soy, directed to exports.
In the evaluation of the analysts at the BNDES, the expansion in cargo transport on railways in Brazil depends on permanent investments and on the purchase of material like wagons and trains.
Since adopting the financing model for buying wagons, the Brazilian fleet of wagons increased from 74,400 units, in April 2004, to 90,100 units in December last year.
In 2005, the production of wagons reached 7,500 units, surpassing in about 25 times the production registered in 2002. The figures relating to the people employed also increased, going from 23,800 work posts, in 2004, to 28,100 jobs in the end of 2005.
The cargo transported increased in the same way, reaching 389 million tons in 2005, in comparison to 366,000 tons in 2004.
The wagons purchased by MCR Rental will be leased to the grains processing company Importação, Exportação e Indústria de í“leos Ltda, which will sublet them to the logistics company América Latina Logística (ALL), which has the concession of the railway network of the South.
Fiat
The Italian carmaker Fiat, which has factories in Brazil, was the leader in car and light commercial vehicles sales in Brazil in the first semester of the year. The company sold 201,120 units, corresponding to 24.6% of the market.
Sales increased 6% over the same period in 2005. Amongst the highlights for the semester are the Fiat Palio, with 63,914 units sold, and the Fiat Mille, with 57,327 cars. This month, Fiat completes 30 years of operations in Brazil.
ABr, Anba
