Brazilian renters see five years of growth

Brazilian rental companies are confident that construction activity in Brazil will sustain a five year boom in the rental sector.

Interviewed for the January-Febuary issue of International Rental News (IRN) magazine, several of the country's largest rental companies explained why so many rental companies are investing heavily in new equipment, particularly aerial platforms.

Sérgio Kariya, director of the Mills rental division within Mills Estruturas e Serviços de Engenharia, told IRN; "First, we're going to have two big events - the World cup and the Olympics - that will force a lot of investment in infrastructure: stadiums, hotels, shopping malls, infrastructure roads, etc. This is going to absorb a lot of equipment.

"Also, we have PAC - an accelerated programme to build low cost housing. The project is for eight million homes - and the plan is to build two or three million in the next three or four years." A third element, he says, is big hydro electric projects, new refineries, and major investments in new shipyards.

Claudio Zattar, managing director of Brasif Rental, said; "We have a very, very positive scenario for the next five years. The new president of Brazil said that they will continue investing in infrastructure and is accelerating all the big projects."

Sounding a note of caution, however, is Paulo Esteves, sales director at Solaris. He said Brazil represented a huge rental opportunity, but said the influx of equipment and new competitors was having an impact; "We are expecting very intensive competition and we are preparing for a price war", he told IRN.

"Rental prices are already down around 10% this year [2010], and we expect a 5% fall in 2011."

Read the full four-page article in the Jan-Feb issue of IRN.