Brazil: Producer announced reaching a final agreement to acquire the Brazilian company Super Metal specializing in the manufacturing of rolling stock and equipment for the track maintenance. The financial side of the deal is not disclosed.
Super Metal has been in the market for over 30 years. The production facilities of the company are located in the city of Governador Valadares and cover an area of almost 19,000 m². The manufacturer’s backlog includes hybrid road-rail cranes, excavators, tractors, mechanized track tools to work with ballast, sleepers and rails, escort coaches for personnel, ballast railcars, flatcars for transporting rails up to 20 m long and truck cranes, excavators and other equipment.
The acquisition of Super Metal strengthens Wabtec’s position in the track rolling stock and equipment business. Thus, Wabtec acquired the American company Nordco for $400 mln USD in March last year. It specializes in the production of hybrid road-rail self-propelled vehicles for working with ballast and sleepers, and also develops technologies and devices for ultrasonic flaw detection of rails.
Wabtec has been present on the Brazilian market for more than 60 years. It has delivered more than 1,800 locomotives for this time period. The company owns two production sites in Campinas and Contagem, as well as an innovation center in Juiz de Fore. The Contagem plant is currently fulfilling a contract to supply more than 2,300 doors for 36 Alstom eight-car metro trains by Alstom being produced for two São Paulo suburban lines.
Wabtec in early November published financial statements for the 9 months of 2022. Accordingly, the company in January-September received new orders for $6.3 bln USD (+9.8% compared to the same period last year), and the total backlog is $22.6 bln (+3.5% against the results of the 3rd quarter of 2021). The manufacturer expects its revenue for the year to be $8.15-8.35 bln, which will be 4-7% higher than the result of 2021.
