As a result, Autometal will invest up to $ 60 million in 2013

The Autometal, specialized in processing of components for the automotive industry, will invest between $ 40 million and $ 60 million over the next 12 months, according to Peter Echegaray, Director of operations of the company. The announcement was made during presentation of the results of Conference 2012.
The amount shall be applied in expansion projects, including the Century, company specializing in plastic injection technology based in Detroit (USA), acquired by Autometal last year.
While there are studies to expand operations in the United States, in Brazil the scenery is not as favorable. The Autometal has suffered with the tightening of margins in this sector in the country and fell to 32.3% in net income for the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2011. In the year, the company recorded a 17.9% drop in profit, to $ 159,3 million.
"We are suffering a very strong fall in the area of heavy vehicles, which represents 12% of the company's revenue," says Fernando Mearim, Chief Financial Officer and investor relations officer. "We believed that the situation would improve over the year, but did not happen," he says.
The national scene
According to the National Association of Automotive vehicle manufacturers (Anfavea), the federal Government's intervention in the automotive market helped retrieve sales, but production of vehicles fell by about 2%. What has damaged the Government action, that spurred sales of cars with the rebate of the tax on industrialized products (IPI), were the international markets. Brazilian exports fell 20.1 percent in volume last year compared with 2011, which also affected the Autometal.
With this, the broker Enables qualified the result as "marginally negative." "The Ebtda was below expectations, reflecting the consolidation of new businesses and the deceleration of the Brazilian automotive market, which was partially offset by the performance in Nafta," says the assessment. The region comprises Canada, Mexico and United States.
Given this scenario, the total revenue would have been stable from 2011 to 2012, there were two acquisitions made last year, which made the company grow almost 4% and reached r $ 1.6 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2012 growth was 24.7%, totaling r $ 448,1 million.
The purchases that boosted the result of Autometal were the acquisitions of Century Plastics, based in Detroit, in the United States, Chinese and Nanjing. In total, there were six purchases in the last 24 months, which generated additional revenue of $ 400 million to the company. We are still analyzing some targets in Brazil, Mexico, India and China, "says Echegaray.
With the dissemination of the results, shares of Autometal 5.8% drop suffered throughout the day and closed at r $ 20,49 listed. The company opened capital in 2011 and has 75% of its shares in the hands of Cie Automotive, global high-tech company for the automotive sector. The Autometal has 17 factories located in Brazil and in Mexico, where does welding, painting, machining, forging, casting, among other services to the automotive industry.