Growth for Marcopolo
Marcopolo SA has maintained its expected performance and pace in 2013, according to its results for the first nine months of 2013. It posted 10.4% growth in bus body production worldwide from January to September, producing 15,858 units, as opposed to 14,367 for the same period in 2012. It achieved consolidated net revenue of £0.74bn/R$2.737bn. General Director of Marcopolo, Jose Rubens de la Rosa, claims the company’s performance during the year was boosted by the production volume attained from July to September, the best quarter of the year for the bus sector in Brazil.
Jose said, ‘The charter and tourism segments continue to be strong, as does the demand for mini buses, spurred on by the Federal Government’s “Road to School” program and the large influx of tourists expected for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The momentary drop in intercity bus demand is basically due to the bidding for interstate lines, scheduled for the end of May 2014. The current concessions expired in 2008 and have been regularly extended since then. Although the official bidding notice has already been issued by the National Ground Transportation Agency (ANTT), operators are initially holding back on renewing their fleets as a result of the uncertainties related to the continuity of their operations.’
In markets outside Brazil, the volume of units exported by Marcopolo from its home country in the third quarter grew 11.5 % compared to the second quarter of 2013. In addition to higher revenues, margins also benefited from the devaluation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar. In terms of the subsidiaries and affiliated companies abroad, production fell 6.9% during the first nine months of the year, totalling 1,437 units (2012: 1,543). Volgren in Australia experienced a 9.4% increase in production compared with the first nine months of 2012 and 43.8% in relation to the third quarter of last year. Regarding the company’s strategic investment in Canada’s New Flyer, volume was higher in the first nine months of this year, totalling 1,556 units, 22.6% higher than the volume for the same period last year. There has also been an increase in back orders over the first nine months of 2013, going from 6,325 orders on 31 December 2012, to 9,890 on 30 September of this year.