São Paulo – Fueled by the favorable exchange rate, the Brazilian bus manufacturer Marcopolo resumed sales to the Arab market and intends to export at least 150 to 200 vehicles to the region this year. The statement was given to ANBA by the exports manager of the company, Ricardo Portolan, when commenting about a delivery of 14 Marcopolo buses to the United Arab Emirates in February. According to the executive, there are other businesses involving 80 unities to the Middle East, of which he cannot yet release any details.
The 14 buses that were delivered in the UAE in February were ordered by the company Al Mariah, which provides services to the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (Enec), the government-owned company responsible for the nuclear energy plants in the UAE. Al Mariah is responsible for the transportation of employees for Enec and won the bidding, with Marcopolo already listed as buses supplier in the proposal. The vehicles were shipped from Brazil in December.
The vehicles are from the model Paradiso 1200, with chassi Scania K410 4×2, in two setups: one for 38 and another for 44 passengers. According to Portolan, there weren’t any major changes to the buses, only a special insulation for the high temperatures of the Arab country. The buses are equipped with executive seats with support for the legs and three-point seat belts, air conditioning, audiovisual system, DVD and refrigerator.
This was Marcopolo’s first delivery of the year in the Middle East and also the first after a three-year pause in business with the region. The company once was a large supplier for the Arab world, but hadn’t exported to the Arabs in the last few years due to the unfavorable exchange rate, to the real appreciation against the North American currency. But with the dollar appreciation against the real and the possibility to compete with prices at another level, Marcopolo begun to strengthen its actions in the region since the end of 2014, with more bidding proposals and visits to clients.
Business were resumed, and even with the possibility of competing with the Chinese, since the yuan hasn’t devalued so much against the dollar as the real did, according to Portolan. He says that, in some sectors, competing against them is already possible, since Marcopolo offers a product with a higher quality. The executive underlines, however, that even in the years when the exchange rate wasn’t a favorable one, the company continued its prospection of the market and maintained its presence in the region through a representation office in Dubai. “And we intend to grow”, says Portolan on the outlook for more business, despite the budget restrictions of some countries due to the low prices of oil.
Last year, Marcopolo exported 4,159 unities and grew 9.4% over the total sold to the global market in 2014. This number already takes into account the sales to the UAE, since the shipments were made at the end of last year. In the Arab world, Marcopolo also has, since 2010, a joint-venture with Ghabbour Auto in Egypt, for bus assembly.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
