BRAZIL: Freight concessionaire Rumo is planning to spend around R$1∙9bn on the acquisition of up to 45 locomotives and a fleet of 2 142 wagons, according to local media reports.
The fleet would operate on new lines to be known as the Olacyr de Moraes Authorised Transport Railroad after the soya bean entrepreneur behind the Ferronorte project, now known as Malha Norte, in the northern part of Mato Grosso state.
The wagon fleet would be designed to carry fertiliser, grain, sugar and other agricultural produce. Rumo said that, in line with company policy in other industrial segments, it would give priority to Brazilian rolling stock suppliers.
To be built under a 45-year concession agreement signed with Mato Grosso state last September, the new routes totalling 730 km would extend the Rumo Malha Norte network north and west from Rondonópolis to Cuiabá, Nova Mutum and Lucas do Rio Verde. Costing around R$11∙2bn, the project would see the extension to Cuiabá open in 2025, with Lucas do Rio Verde reached in 2028.
In mid-January the Ministry of Infrastructure announced that the extensions qualified for a special incentive scheme featuring a tax waiver valued at around R$178m.
The line between Lucas do Rio Verde and Rondonópolis would give Rumo the ability to offer tariffs about 30% lower than those charged by road hauliers who currently move grain in up to 2 000 lorries a day to Rumo’s Rondonópolis terminal for onward shipment by rail to the port of Santos.
The start of work is understood to await the granting of an environmental licence by the Mato Grosso Environmental Secretariat.
