Marcopolo confirms Portuguese closure

Marcopolo, the biggest Brazilian bus-bodywork manufacturer, yesterday confirmed the closure of its factory in Portugal, inaugurated, as Marcopolo's first foreign subsidiary operation, back in 1990. The group will now have to supply much of Europe from Brazil. It closed one of its two Russian plants early this year in the light of a big dip in demand. Production at the Portuguese plant ended two weeks ago with the 170 employees sent off on collective holidays.

The Marcopolo installations in question are to be found in Coimbra; they produced 165 buses in 2008, the equivalent of just 0.8% of total company production (of 21,811 buses). In the first half of this year, the Coimbra factory produced just 58 buses. In February, Marcopolo began producing bodywork in India; in September, it will begin producing bodywork in Egypt. This will mean it has 13 plants operating in nine different countries in the final quarter of 2009.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
August 29, 2009