|
Agrale, a Brazilian maker of trucks, light chassis, motorcycles, tractors and engines has just hired an executive whose mission is to increase exports to the Middle East and Africa.
This year the company has already exported 30 MT 12 SB model chassis to Lebanon, equipped with technology specially developed for buses that operate in places with high temperatures.
"We have been receiving various enquiries and many negotiations are under way (with the Arab countries). We are after greater development of this market," stated the company export manager, Edson Martins.
According to him, exports to the Arab countries began in 2001, when the company shipped 70 chassis of the model MA 8.5 TCA to Kuwait, also with technology specially developed for vehicles that operate in places with high temperatures. In 2002, another 73 chassis of the same model and with the same technology were shipped.
"Replacement parts and special tools for use with these products are also traded regularly, after the sale of the products," stated Martins. The main markets for Agrale products, however, are the countries in Latin America, where the company has a distribution chain.
45% Growth
Agrale ended 2004 with growth of 45% over 2003. Company revenues reached US$ 169 million, against US$ 119 million registered in the previous year, in current figures.
In 2005, the company from the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul hopes to grow around 10%, mainly based on growth in sales of products released at the end of 2004, like trucks and chassis with electronic engine components (E-tronic line) and military jeep Agrale Marruá, which has limited production.
Just 100 units of the jeep were produced, and they will be traded by a chain of authorized dealerships. According to Martins, the objective is to give adventure lovers the chance of having a military concept vehicle. The vehicle maker invested US$ 4.3 million in development of the jeep's project and in the construction of a new assembly line.
In the tractor sector, Agrale released models BX 6.110, 4230 Cargo, 4118.4, and the 5085.4 Arrozeiro. In the line of trucks, the novelties are the Agrale 8500 with a new cabin. In the chassis line, the company maintained the lead in the domestic market in the light segment and the third position among all kinds of chassis.
In November, there was the release of a new line of products, with special attention to the Midibus chassis for 12 tonnes of gross vehicle weight, developed for short and medium length urban and highway applications.
The company also bets on the increase in sales on the foreign market. In 2004, export revenues reached US$ 20 million, an increase of 23%.
Profile
Different from most vehicle manufacturers established in Brazil, which belong to multinational companies, the Agrale capital is entirely Brazilian.
Based in the city of Caxias do Sul, in Rio Grande do Sul, the company is the national leader in production of chassis for mini and microbuses (since 1998), tractors of up to 40 horsepower and small size diesel engines.
With 38 years of history, the company belongs to the Francisco Stedile group, which also includes companies Lavrale, Fazenda Três Rios, Germani Alimentos and Agritech (Yanmar tractors). Last year the group had revenues of US$ 259 million.
The company has four small industries in Brazil. In 2002, Agrale started operating its first production unit outside Brazil, Colombia Unit, turned to the production of trucks and chassis for microbuses, installed in the city of Bogotá.
Ever since the company started its activities, 338,000 diesel engines, 64,000 tractors, 100,000 motorcycles and scooters and 34,000 trucks and chassis have already been produced.
Agrale
www.agrale.com
ANBA - Brazil-Arab News Agency
www.anba.com.br
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.