Railway projects in Brazil are expected to gain a boost of up to US$8.25bn
Projects and initiatives totaling up to 42.5 billion reais (US$8.25bn) in investments are expected to gain traction in the railway sector in Brazil.
Large companies, as well as federal government initiatives, are driving these projects.
In the passenger area, a consortium formed by Odebrecht, Álya, Metrô Engenharia and MPE Engenharia will begin the expansion of Salvador’s VLT Line 1, in the capital of the state of Bahia.
The new section, known as Tramo IV, will have 1.1km of tunnel extension starting from Lapa station.
The planned investment is 1.5bn reais in federal funds for the works.
In freight transportation, the federal government, through the National Land Transportation Agency (ANTT) and the ministry of Transport, expects to announce in the second week of April progress in the process of early renewal of the Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica (FCA) concession, which should unlock investments of at least 24bn reais.
FCA is the main integration axis between the Southeast, Northeast and Center-West regions and is controlled by the logistics company VLI, whose shareholders include Vale (29,6%), Brookfield (36,5%), Mitsui (10,0%), FI-FGTS (15,9%) and BNDESPar (8,0%).
The railway, with 7,200km, transports soy, corn, fertilizers, ore and iron, among other products. The original concession contract expires this year, and the negotiations involve renewal for another 30 years.
According to ANTT, investments may increase to up to 34bn reais during the contract.
In parallel, Vale continues negotiations with the federal government for the renegotiation of the concession contracts of two railways: the Vitória a Minas Railway (EFVM) and the Carajás Railway (EFC).
The parties are negotiating the revision of a contract signed in 2024. Vale had reached an agreement for the early renewal of the concessions in 2020 and 2022, during former president Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, to extend the contracts until 2057, upon payment of an almost 12bn reais concession fee at the time.
However, the current government considered this amount to be below fair value, and the parties began negotiations to define an additional payment by Vale.
According to representatives of the federal government consulted by BNamericas, a final agreement between the parties may be announced in the coming weeks. The government intends for the mining company to pay around 7 billion adicionais reais, in addition to the approximately 4 billion reais already paid since talks resumed in 2024.
(The original version of this content was written in Portuguese)