[Foreign language]
It's good to be back. It's been some years that I hadn't had the Apimec meeting as the chairman. So we were just now talking, Fabiana and myself, with Valiati, 23 in-person meetings, in addition to all the other ways that the company uses to talk to the market. And Fabiana has been in the MAO, younger years, and I certainly did take part in some. But it's very good to be here with the company, with you, and to know that in person things make sense because we're able to feel the company and the heat of information, the vibration of the team, and all the possibility of us absorbing more and more information about the company. So I'm very pleased. I thank you all for your attendance.
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It is always so important. We also are streaming the meeting on the web, so thanks as well to all online attendees.
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Once again, I'd like to highlight that Marcopolo is part of Level 2 of corporate governance. This is also very important, remembering that Level 2 quite often is not too far from the Novo Mercado.
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May say.
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The only difference are common shares. So the company's responsibilities have always been very clear. And also another important point is that this 23 years of Apimec Brasil now makes sense in a way that the Apimec firm has always been open and expanded, independent, and always sought to have more and more market participants through the analysis of investments, but also through different related areas and potential shareholders. This is very, very important to us. So again, I salute our investor relations officer, José Antônio Valiati, that is going to lead our meeting, and later on he is going to forward the presentation.
Also the participation of our CEO, André Armaganian. I tried to say your name right, but things are what they are. Pablo Motta, CFO, and Eduardo Willrich, the investor relations manager. Last message you received together with the presentation material, an assessment survey, and this makes sense for us really to analyze the information provided.
Later on, according to the scoring, we are going to put them in a ranking. Just to understand the information and give you a perspective in terms of business modeling for businesses in the stock exchange, and etc. Please fill out the forms. Now I'm going to turn to Valiati for the presentation.
Good morning, everyone. First of all, I'd like to thank Ricardo Tadeu Martins, Executive President of Apimec Brasil, for once again welcoming us and giving us the opportunity of being here in person in this meeting. Also, I'd like to thank those that are here today and all of those that are following us online. I hope that you all have an excellent meeting, and I'm going to turn to Pablo Motta, that is going to start with the presentation.
Later on, we are going to have our CEO, André, and then we are going to have the Q&A session in the end. I wish you all an excellent meeting.
Good morning, everyone. Talking about Marcopolo and our numbers, you see that this year was very symbolic, representative to us, 75 years that we are going to turn next week that the company was founded. We indeed see that with these numbers and the consistency of deliveries along the last quarters, we really want to honor the company's history. Looking at the numbers of our second quarter, comparing quarter-over-quarter, we had, well, let me see, is the point of working. There you go.
So 43% growth in net revenue quarter-on-quarter. Remember the second quarter last year was a complicated quarter. We had the introduction of Euro 6 chassis, lower volumes, but we also see in this quarter a significant volume of microbuses that indeed helped us to have higher revenue. EBITDA, BRL 382 million, somehow generated by our gross margin of 26.1%. Also consistently, we have been delivering very significant gross margins along the quarters. And consequently, EBITDA margin of 19.5%. So indeed, the company was able to have good operational leverage and bring good results in EBITDA. And thinking of net results, 12.8%, also compared to 23%. In 2024, we see more consistency, a net result of two digits, and this is basically what we have been targeting quarter-on-quarter. And that shows also a return on invested capital of 20.6% this quarter.
As for the Brazilian bus production, everything we talk about consistency shows results of the very significant work we have been doing to deliver good margins and good net results. And we are still within an environment, when you think of the Brazilian bus production, we are still at levels below what would be our historical average. So in terms of fleet aging, since 2014, basically, we had an aging of the Brazilian fleet. From 12, 13, our fleet went from 11 to 11 years, 12 to 23, I'm sorry, from the operator's perspective, they have more consumption in the terms of vehicles, fuels. And we see in the history that the company has been delivering margins and results in the market in which we haven't reached the average necessary historical margin to keep the fleet age.
So maintenance, for instance, services should be at 32,000 units, what we had in 2014, clearly. In 2023, as you can see, even with the good results, we delivered 22,000 buses. In 2024, with the delay of purchases in the renewal of the Caminho da Escola, we are probably not going to reach the 32,000 that we reached in 2014, which would be the reference to keep the fleet age. So we see there are good prospects in terms of volumes for us to really pick up the bus segment in Brazil. And when we think in terms of production, we see that there is significant growth. Brazil, as I mentioned, very much because of a large volume of microbuses this year. We went from 2023 in the second quarter with 2,000 buses to 3,100 in the second quarter 2024.
And that, if you think of international operations, we see a very significant volume coming in our businesses, not only in Brazil, but also internationally. What is worth highlighting here is that we have been having in the first half a less significant volume of exports. So if you think of Marcopolo history, we always had very special project exports to African countries, South American countries, and now we did not have a major project. So exports this second quarter were below what we exported last year. However, in terms of external units, we do see an increase of approximately 17%, mostly concentrated on Australia, that has been a country, and we have been talking about that, not only Australia, but other countries, really based on the restructuring we had in Brazil that was expanded to international operations. And we see operations started to perform in terms of profitability.
South Africa, with the same price movements that we had in Brazil, also being able to position the right prices with differentiated products in the market. Australia, we also bring this unit to a productivity level, profitability level close to what we have in Brazil. Still not at the 19 EBITDA we reached this quarter, but moving on towards that. That was a market that has always been a challenge. Since we entered the market, we have been delivering value losses along the years, but all the restructuring work is starting to yield fruit in terms of profitability. Australia is already delivering good results this quarter. Mexico, the operation, also with good profitability, good work on cost reductions, and here also with an effort to seek other markets.
André is going to talk a bit more about prospects for these businesses, but financially speaking, operations are very well structured in terms of costs, prices, with volumes that enable us to have good operational leverage. China being a unit for us to seek more and more development projects. Consequently, we are going to see that in terms of market, although we did have growth, we are going to focus on specific markets, especially Australia. Profitability, consolidated operations, seeking to deliver the same performance. I think this is the major differentiators when we think of the quarter in terms of results. Of the net consolidated results in Brazil, we see we have a greater share of international operations.
If you think of growth quarter-over-quarter, by type of product, as I mentioned before, we see that bodies are increasing significantly in the second quarter 2024, very much connected to the segment of microbuses. Then net revenue broken down by segment. I think this is a very interesting piece of data. In the past, you will remember we had value creation in terms of profitability depending on heavy vehicle segments. And now what we see in this quarter, for instance, compared to heavy vehicles, last year we had approximately 39% of revenue coming from these products. This quarter, 31.2%. And what we want to say with that is that despite having a decrease of heavier vehicles, our profitability went up. So we have been working to be able to, regardless of the segment, have very good profitability.
So we are looking at margins generated per vehicle produced, and we are working at a price point that will ensure profitability. Then we are going to work with a mix to strengthen operational leverage and improve efficiency-related issues because we know these are vehicles that demand a different man-hour work depending on the complexity of their production. But profitability by vehicle, the objective is, regardless of having more heavier or lighter vehicles, to have the right mix and have the better use of our platform.
Talking about our numbers, total net revenue second quarter 2024, BRL 1.956 billion against BRL 1.3 billion of the second quarter 2023, an increase of 43%. And in the half year, BRL 3.6 billion against BRL 3 billion in the first half of 2023, an increase of approximately 20%. Comprising the revenue, revenue in Brazil BRL 1.2 billion, exports BRL 203 million, foreign revenues BRL 495 million.
So as I mentioned, very hard work in international operations. We had an increase of 25% in the volume of revenues from these operations, and this is revenues that contribute to profitability within the whole movement we are conducting not only in Brazil, but abroad. Gross margin 26.1%. And here in this context, we also see international operations generating value, no longer the consolidated operation depending on Brazil in terms of gross margin. So historically speaking, you see that foreign operations were destroying value products at a price point that destroyed gross margin. And now in the consolidated number, the only work we have to do is how much foreign operations can add value to us. And you're going to see EBITDA margin, gross margin, and net income at levels above what we had considering only Brazil. Remember, consolidated numbers show that all companies are adding value to our results.
EBITDA margin 19.5%, BRL 382 million against 11.6% in the second quarter 2023, with BRL 158 million EBITDA there. In the half year, in terms of EBITDA, we are talking about approximately BRL 700 million against BRL 450 million, that is 55% above in terms of EBITDA. And net income, so you're talking about BRL 250 million this quarter against BRL 140 million in the second quarter 2023, 79% approximately increase. And in the half year, BRL 567 million against BRL 376 million, 50% increase, and a net margin in the quarter of 15.7%. In the half year, sorry.
So in terms of results, this is what I had to say, and I'm going to turn to André that is going to talk a bit about our performance and prospects. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here with you on my second APMAC. I hope the second of many.
So let me talk a bit about the road segment. Indeed, we have been talking about that for a long time. The segment is recovering. It is an important process. Pablo showed the need for fleet renewal, but I think the greatest success of Marcopolo was the product launched. People were talking about a weaker competition if Marcopolo was going to develop and bring new products to the market, and that's what we did in G8. Remember, we've talked about that before. G7 was a product that was well positioned. The market was pleased, but the company really pushed itself to bring more alternatives to the market in terms of convenience, comfort, safety, and the cost of maintenance. So several topics that were added to this product. Air companies are what they are. Air tickets are very expensive.
People are moving from air companies to bus companies, enjoying comfort, security, and starting really to enjoy the segment. When we see the situation of air companies today, we feel that for some years now, we are going to have an opportunity of selling our road buses quite well. When we talk about portfolio, Marcopolo portfolio with road buses, we have the year closed. We are starting already to look into the next year. And when we talk about charter buses, which was a positive surprise because remember, during the pandemic, soon after the pandemic, there was a huge need for renewal of charter buses. Remember, the second vehicle to transport more people to companies because of COVID-19. We thought we had a higher boom of sales and then accelerated renewal and then a drop. But the drop didn't come.
Sales continued to be high, especially in the agribusiness and mining sectors. We believe we are going to continue doing quite well in the next months and years. G8, also I would like to highlight that we launched this vehicle in June, July 2021. We have more than 4,000 buses sold. Of these 4,000, more than 2,000 are DDs, and this is another differentiator for Marcopolo. Remember, this is where we have the higher differentiation. We are one of the few global manufacturers of the product, and our customers can offer differentiated services to passengers. All that bringing a potential of differentiation for Marcopolo, and we already exported more than 800 DDs to the market. I'm sorry, not DD. We exported more than 800 G8s to the international market.
Talking about competition in the segment, the runner-up also has a full portfolio, so we believe we are going to have a very good year in terms of profitability. Urban buses, you see lots of incentives to the segment. We see the government really incentivizing the sector in the post-pandemic. We did have lots of funding for subsidies. There was the need for government support for the system to operate that was felt in the pandemic. What happened to several urban companies that needed the support? And this is something recurrent not only in Brazil, but also in international markets. So we believe the urban segment is going to continue to be financially supported, and that has been one of the factors of growth for the segment, not only in volume, but in profitability. And we see the second largest movement being electric vehicles. We've talked about that before.
I think the greatest leap that Marcopolo had in the urban segment was to develop an electric solution in-house. That was an important leap. So in addition to the urban bodies, we also produced electric buses with all shelf components, but software developed in the company. This movement of electric buses, the announcement and interest of renewal was even faster than renewals were said, but renewals started. We already have eight buses that are going to start running in Porto Alegre this month. We sold another 20 buses with our own chassis, full buses and third-party buses. So we are also working in a model with partners where we sell our buses with third-party bodies. And between our own models and chassis bodies, we have more than 160 electric vehicles in Brazil. So in the world, we have more than 1,000 electric buses sold, most with third-party chassis.
So we start to see a movement. It's lower than what we expected at first, but I think it was the time for us to get ready to bring more differentiation, more performance to our products. We are testing products with very good results. Microbuses, the Caminho da Escola government program, the speed of renewal, we see for the second half a volume that is not going to meet our initial estimates, but the upside is that we have had the opportunity of covering demand with retail sales. So because retail of microbuses is very much heated, especially for Volare, we have kind of made the swap, not selling as much for the Caminho da Escola, but selling more Volare, which gives us, in addition to coverage for the year and good results, higher predictability for next year. So we had past questions.
Analysts would ask, what is going to be 2025 like since 2024 is practically closed? Now we see a better picture. We see that half the volume we got from pass to school is going to be for the next year. Remember, it was a bit more than 7,000 units. We see that half the volume is going to be for next year. We are going to offset those reductions with retail sales. [Foreign language] . We're talking about international operations. Pablo already made good comments about the timing and performance of each one of them. Indeed, this is work that we really took a deep dive in the last year. We got all the best practices of Brazil and took them abroad, but not only that.
Lots of administrative work, support work, and I think the greatest advantage is that we are having better and better integration of the Brazilian headquarters with international operations and interconnecting them all. So I'm going to start with China just to show what I've been saying. In China, we made the decision of having in China a company active not to sell 1,000, 2,000, 10,000 buses, but having a strategic plan for strategic partnerships, global sourcing, a hub of technology, of innovation, learning best practices. So we are using these operations, not only Brazil, but Colombia, South Africa, Australia, Argentina, all these operations really having a direct connection between opportunities they see in their plans with cost reductions that China can provide. So we are using China's plant as a strategic asset because we were able to get to this better integration.
Remember that China is also an important production base to Australia, very competitive, and we have been connecting operations more and more with China. South Africa, the operation is growing. We already saw in the past that we would grow production. That's why we had a structural movement to have the right people focused on preparing the plant for the accelerated growth. The team is doing very well with very good support for us to reach the volumes that we target at this operation. In mid-July, I was in South Africa. We launched G8, the first G8 with the steering wheel on the right. More than 100, 150 customers were present in the launch and very positive acceptance of G8 in the market, which will lead us to very good sales of road buses in South Africa. Argentina, we are now holding 100% of the operation.
This is something that we had planned before. Remember that strategically we said that Marcopolo was going to go into operations with higher share and leave a non-profitable operation. That was a strategic decision of the company some years ago. We implemented that. We left operations in Argentina. It's an operation we have talked a lot about that. The value of the Marcopolo brand is huge in the market, one of the largest double-decker markets in the world, and that has been affected by the non-renewal fleet for a long time. The fleet is aging, and there is a giant opportunity for renewal when the market recovers. So we are keeping the operation at a very low balance point for us to survive the first half of the year, but we already have a closed portfolio for the second quarter.
So we have a positive outlook for Argentina for the second half year. Australia, Pablo already mentioned that, but anyway, I remember the very first trip to Argentina, Pablo, myself, and our international business director to take best practices of Brazil to abroad. Together with the local team, we started the transformation of the company. The company had a weakened operational structure. It has been settled. We see month after month an increase in the quantity of vehicles produced, and this increase in efficiency, production, and price repositioning enabled the results that you touched today. Colombia continues to show good results. Remember that this operation is highly dependent on the TransMilenio program renewal. But while we don't have that, we sell microbuses, urban buses, and mainly G8, which was also launched to the market.
So G8, in addition to being manufactured in Brazil, it's also manufactured in Colombia, Mexico, and exported from Brazil to South Africa. And Mexico, an operation that is growing, it is quite adjusted, operationally speaking. We had opportunities to see cost reductions, as Pablo mentioned, and we see in this operation a huge opportunity with G8 and continue to keep our footprint, especially with customers that were not buying Marcopolo buses. So the single-decker is manufactured locally, the DD exported from Brazil, and we are also sending some units to the American market. We have, I think that last year we sold 6 units, and the idea is to sell 60 this year. So the process is really to mature the sales. Talking about prospects, we see a growth in production that has been one of the main factors for our results. We've been talking about that before.
We had an outlook for continuous increase of production. In the beginning of the year, we had some sales from 2023, then available in February, and from then on, we are growing volumes month after month. Even with the Pass to School decrease, we are still seeing for the coming months growth of sales, and that has brought part of the results through operational leverage, and production is going to continue growing, as I mentioned. We have already a positive prospect, and remember that seasonally we always have a very positive end of year because of the need for renewal for the vacation period and a very good period in terms of mix of products, especially in the third, fourth quarter of the year.
In terms of efficiency, when we talk about growth pillars and potential to bring better results for the company, efficiency is the name of the game and one of the main pillars for this to happen. We are very much focused on our organization to increase efficiency by discipline, monitoring, and a cultural change that we've talked before. I remember one of the first conversations with that when we talked about culture, changing transparency, addressing problems. We've talked about that extensively, and we are still seeing the result of the seed that was planted way ago. It's not easy to produce buses and bodies. It's very complex. It's also an entry barrier to many players, but we are strengthening processes, systems, culture so that more and more we have more differentiated products and reach levels of efficiency that we expect. We are working on opportunities, cash generation.
We have some factors that burn our cash. One is the growth of production. We had a lot of material being developed in the plant. The work that we have been developing towards efficiency is enabling us to, in addition to delivery volumes, reduce materials used in the manufacturing process, which is a source of results because we know with the growth of demand, we need more working capital for the plants. And exports, of course, the appreciation of the dollar benefits exports. The exchange variation does affect it adversely, but we know that strong dollar favors us in exports. So we are very much focused on recovering lost volumes that you saw in the beginning of the presentation. We have lower sales compared to the same quarter last year. So the international team is focused on especially packages for the urban segment. That's what makes the difference.
In terms of investments, we are investing in a new manufacturing complex in São Mateus. Remember, this is the plant where we started, and we are going to be introducing electric buses and electric chassis for the full asset. We are making important investments and really accelerating the process. We already have logistics in a new area. We also have an open line for an additional line for the production of electric urban buses. So the company is being prepared when the electric urban renewal comes stronger; we are prepared. We open our inflammable center. This is always a concern with our people. We had a safe environment, but it's safer now where we separate all inflammables from the plant, improving efficiency in our operation. We are making investments in industrial automation, significant investments. We also see a huge opportunity for the improvement of our manufacturing complex and updates.
We are investing in chassis. This is a new movement both for electric and Volare buses. We are starting production of our vehicles with our own solution and new products. Here, a special invitation to you. We are celebrating 75 years of history on August the 6th. We are going to have important launches at the Lat.Bus Trade Show that takes place from 6th to 8th of August. You are all invited to see Marcopolo innovations on intercity, urban buses, microbuses. The company has built a beautiful history in its 75 years, but it's still looking forward, thinking big, and developing and seeking to develop more and more mobility solutions to the market. So if you have the opportunity, go visit the trade show, come talk to us, and see what we are launching. So I'm going to stop here, and I'm going to open for your questions.
Valiati, I don't know if you want to make a comment. Eduardo. Before opening for questions, I would briefly like to symbolize the 23 years of relationship with the market, especially through Apimec, now Apimec Brasil, with the frequency seal. This is something that we always want to show, relationship with the market. The market is always talking about investments. The analysis of investments, recommendations. We always try to show to the market and also count on you to promote all that because we know how important a seal, a certification may be for the information to flow throughout analysts, influencers that are serious for us not to have opportunism. This is what the seal is all about. It has this mission of showing to the market that the company, its executive team, participants, in person or online, are engaged in the form of reciprocity of information.
For Apimec, this is very important. I believe this is also a huge differentiator for companies because it does make a difference in everything that we see in terms of information exchange in the market and safe sources. So thank you, Marcopolo, for the 23 years, 23 years with Apimec alone, but we know that through your different channels of communication with the market, you're always available. So once again, thank you and congratulations. Thank you. So this is for your team. A recognition of all your work. Thank you so much. [Foreign language] I think most of you are used to that. Let's have two questions for participants. Don't forget to say your names and companies.
Good morning. This is Victor from Bradesco BBI. I have two questions on my side. The first. If you can quantify how much margin increase we should expect for next year. The second question about investments. In the second quarter, you invested BRL 39 million in São Mateus. How much is still missing for you to complete the plant? So if you could talk about the capacity of the market.
Thanks for your questions. For a long time now, qualifying our labor, you know that labor is a significant part of our cost. So we have very high volume of labor-intensive work. We don't disclose this data, but we think we have a potential of getting to 4%-5% in terms of better margins with better efficiency. This is relevant cost, the cost composition. We know the higher share comes with materials and then man-hour, all our process. The cost driver is hours for the production of a vehicle.
When we talk about efficiency, it is an improvement in general costs, in direct materials, and labor that somehow is key for us to make it happen. So I would say there is potential in an ideal scenario that is having the slots filled with the ideal mix, a balance of lines. So we have a potential of improving our margin by 4%-5% in this ideal scenario. In terms of investments, we still have 60% of investments to be made in terms of recognition of results in São Mateus. We already recognize about 40% of what's being done. But remember, what we are doing there is basically the following. From 2013 onwards, when we started the project, we had a single purpose. And along the period, we have been adjusting the plant. So right now, the objective is to have this line that André mentioned, specific.
[Foreign language] So better organizing the plant so that it can be a plant that, as we are able to have higher demands for the renewal of urban buses, we can also be prepared to meet an increase in demand. So to organize the plant and make it ready for the manufacturing of electric buses and chassis. As for capacity, well, with electric buses, we've manufactured the first electric bus. Taking it from Ana Rech to São Mateus to train people. We should manufacture 10-15 electric buses, but it's a start. We want to train the team, and the idea is to have the plant prepared. We are talking about 5 electric buses per day, 6, 5-6 electric buses per day at this operation.
So we know, as the renewal of electric buses is slow, we want to have the operation ready when we start receiving large orders. And we are starting to have good sales with third-party chassis, but our operation is going to be ready for third-party chassis and our chassis. And even for us not to miss the opportunity of selling high-added value products and show that the Brazilian industry is truly capable of meeting the electric vehicle demand. So 5-6 vehicles per day. And we also have a capacity at Ana Rech. So if we have a higher demand for electric buses, the highest movement is in Espírito Santo, but we also have an operation in Caxias do Sul in Ana Rech.
And as Pablo Motta mentioned, in addition to all the work with electric buses, chassis, electric or Volare, also we want to organize the company to have higher production capacity as a whole with all makes at that operation. Remember, we have urban, microbuses, and Caminho da Escola products.
Good morning. This is Marcelo Motta from JP Morgan. Two questions on my side. First, if you could talk about margin, how much efficiency you can still get from international market. You said that your target was to get to the level of Brazilian operations, but just to understand the gap and how long it would take to fill this gap. With this extra 4%, 5% efficiency margin, is this also valid for international operations? And second question about M&A. Perhaps there are still two subsidiaries that you do not own 100%. I think it's Colombia and Mexico.
Do you want to get there? Does it make sense? We see the movement in Argentina. So if you could talk about these other two, I appreciate that.
I'm going to start answering the M&A question. Remember that back there, we said that our international strategy is to leave non-profitable assets. This is what we did. We left Egypt, India, Russia way back when. We consolidated two operations from Argentina in one. And we mentioned that in addition to leaving non-profitable assets, we would increase our share in other assets to manage the operations. We did that in Australia. We had 75%, and we are at 100%. And we did that in Argentina. First, we consolidated to one. We are now with 100% share. The only operations in which we do not have 100% share, Colombia is 50/50.
Now, Colombia is an operation in which we have a very strong partner, quite representative in the market. A bus operator brings lots of know-how to the business. So we do see an opportunity of keeping the 50/50. The partnership is working very well. We have been exchanging management, sometimes Marcopolo, sometimes local. The local manager is doing very, very well. They are there for quite some time. In Mexico, we have 74%, and Mercedes has 26%. But this is also an operation that management is all ours. We make all decisions. The fact we have the partnership with Mercedes does not prevent us from selling products with other chassis brands, which was a concern of ours. In the Mexico market, we have a very strong sale of urban buses with Mercedes, but intercity buses are other European players. And we did not want to miss the opportunity.
We didn't want to be attached to a single brand. One of Marcopolo's differentiators is exactly flexibility. We want to be the favorite choice of our customers, regardless of the chassis used. So Mexico 74-26 is working well. And New Flyer. Remember, back then, we had a capital call. We didn't want to be diluted. We tried to keep our share. We were slightly lower, but the view was that what had to be done there is what we did in other international operations. So New Flyer still today is starting to implement the process that Marcopolo implemented through. [Foreign language] Thanks for your question. For efficiency, globally speaking, it's important just to mention something. When we talk about efficiency, we're talking about seeking.
[Foreign language] Production to meet the current portfolio with an efficiency of 100%. [Foreign language] So having this in mind and considering. [Foreign language] Profitability, even not having TransMilenio now.
And when we have [Foreign language] If the volume of vehicles that are more standard will truly be able in that operation to have higher profitability. And in terms of Argentina, thinking of South America, in Argentina, we have an operation that today we had all this micro environment, but the market is starting to react in terms of production. We still have lots of plant idleness. We kept the assets and knowledge to prepare for the recovery. From January to June, we did have a low volume in the delivery of buses for the first quarter. Second, also low, but with a volume that enables us to have a positive operational result. So there we have a potential for value creation because of the restructuring and the adjustment of prices. I think that's it.
[Foreign language] New Flyer, I think that's a good point. We have also been monitoring the plant. You, as Marcopolo shareholders, follow our shares. We also follow the shares of New Flyer to check on performance and ensure that the initiatives that are being put into practice are in line with what we did in Brazil and in other markets. So we have at least this revenue being implemented. So in terms of operational performance, they're also recovering profitability. So in terms of efficiency, with less impact on materials that generated great disturbance downtime.
And in terms of seeking qualification today, they have labor that is being trained, very good knowledge in-house, which enables us, together with working with the materials being delivered on the time needed, we are going to be able to generate profitability, not only because we are renewing contracts at the right price point, but because we are increasing efficiency. This is what we are doing in that operation.
Good morning. This is Fernanda from XP. Congratulations on your results. My question is a follow-up on your mix. I see this is one of the manufacturers that led to this improvement of margins. So I would like you to talk about mix per category. Can you give an order of magnitude of the share of products with higher value added, less G8, electric, urban?
[Foreign language] This is articulated. [Foreign langauge] no. Increasing our product traditionally in the third and mainly fourth quarter. [Foreign language] Have good DD sales. So gradually we are increasing our capacity. Intercity buses, we are keeping constant volumes because we've been having good volumes throughout the year. Charter buses, we are increasing now because we had a slight reduction and not a reduction of demand. As I mentioned in the presentation,
the portfolio is basically closing all segments. But because we are always seeking best efficiency, we have other packages in operation. So all these are cars in Ana Rech. [Foreign language]
When other segments, then you leave Ana Rech and you go to other plants. And we see in microbuses this exchange of Caminho da Escola to Volare. And we see a positive portfolio in urban buses. So we see that urban buses, one or two months, we are in the process of having the chassis, but in the last months of the year, we see a good sale of urban buses. And there is a slightly heavier mix for the plants that produce urban and microbuses. In a nutshell, what I'm saying is that we see an interesting mix of heavier vehicles in the intercity segment with double deckers, but also this combination of microbuses and urban buses. An interesting point, Fernanda, as Pablo mentioned in his presentation, we more and more have less difference between the profitability of each product line.
So mix is relevant, of course, but it is becoming less relevant, and more and more we get to productivity levels of products because we are seeing an increase of demand in all segments. So the idea is to have more and more similar profitability levels. [Foreign language]
Good morning, everyone. This is Gabriel Tinem from Santander. I have two questions on my side. The first, more connected to the pass to school program. I would like to understand the deceleration of orders from cities and to understand what's going on, the rationale behind that. And second, more related to the PAC, the PAC, what are the opportunities for Marcopolo in terms of volumes for electric buses?
Hi, Gabriel. As for the Caminho da Escola, when the product was announced in 2023, it was implied that distribution over a long time was going to be different from what we had in the previous bidding process. Generally, it was from 12-14 months, and volumes would be distributed along this period. When the tender happened with a higher volume at the point where the results were disclosed, they said that the period would be about one and a half years. And that idea that it was going to be very much concentrated in 2024 changed to what we saw the proposal was, a higher balance between cities over a long time.
That enables us to have better planning in terms of distribution volumes, pay attention to the retail market that is not concentrated only on the passenger school, work with the urban buses that are going to occupy part of the space. So we are going to work more with micro and urban buses. And also, we are going to have higher visibility about 2025. So even with the cooling down, I think this is better for the long-term view of the company. [Foreign language] About the PAC, what we see is that the government, through the Ministry of Cities, is working very hard to foster fleet renewal. Of course, that's one thing: to announce the program, then create the program, and then make the funds available. We know it takes time, especially now that the government is revisiting public expenditure.
But we still believe, based on what's been announced, that in terms of fleet renewal, this is not going to be only for electric buses. We know that many cities in Brazil still have difficulties in terms of infrastructure. Even São Paulo, that should be the city with the best infrastructure for renewal, still has difficulties to increase the number of electric buses in the city. But again, knowing that some cities are demanding smaller purchases just to start the process, we believe that 2,500 units will be. will be entered in PAC. But that depends on the demands and initiatives of the government for this to start becoming truth.
[Foreign language] I'm Ari Matos. I come from Quadra Asset. I don't know if it's part of the question you answered, but quite briefly, there was a bid for 6,000 buses, and I didn't see anything about that. And second, ESG. How has it impacted your costs? Are you implementing any projects in Brazil or abroad? And how did the Rio Grande do Sul climate catastrophe affect you in terms of people and logistics?
Thanks for your questions. 6,000 buses, yes. These were for the PAC, 3,000 diesel, 3,000 electric buses. As Pablo mentioned, they are still in the process of structuring the program. You have issues to be solved, but looking at our portfolio and increase of production, we have a good prospect regardless of the project to increase volumes. But I think the project shows that the government understands the relevance of public transportation for cities.
The government, in these acceleration programs, understands it has to help, as it did in the post-pandemic when there was a need to incentivize urban transportation to keep operators healthy. So this is still being structured, as Pablo mentioned, but we do not see negative impacts to us. As for ESG, we have several actions developed in the environment. In the environment, we have the benefit of being inserted in a business that is pro-environment. Now you're going to see we have been talking of new fuels. We launched the electric bus, and we are also going to have the opportunity at the trade show of talking about the environment. So in terms of decarbonization, the company is very much focused on that. In our launches, talking about products, we are using materials that are lighter, but also more recyclable. Lighter, obviously, gives savings in fuel consumption.
It's less pollutant and recyclable because we are concerned about the final disposal of products. So in products, we have a very strong R&D area seeking for improvement. And decarbonization is our most important flag. And internally, we're talking about the reuse of water, electric energy from renewable sources. So a huge effort of the organization. Socially speaking, we have important work with the Marcopolo Foundation in the rain period, and I'm going to talk about that. We had lots of support from our people with money, but also with materials. Marcopolo announced BRL 5 million that were made available to help with the rains and important social work. We are a reference in the region of Caxias in the south of Brazil. And governance, Ricardo mentioned a bit about that Level 2, following all the rules, independent committees. So with ESG, the company is working very hard.
Regardless of acceleration or decrease of ESG in the market, we have been working consistently towards that. The rains, we had an impact of 1.5 in production, but the impact was not impacting our facilities, but because we have people, employees that live outside Caxias and the roads were affected. There were lots of landslides in the region. It is a mountain region. Instead of floods, we had landslides and the roads were blocked. But we worked very hard with the government to have a fast answer. We created crisis committees, and that's good because we work also with a future view of mitigating environmental risks that we might have. So we also structured several committees to work with that. The plant was not affected. Employees, as I mentioned, suppliers, we also worked very fast. We created a crisis committee to reroute any problems with suppliers.
So we exchanged suppliers, we verticalized and developed some components in-house. And we also changed the product solutions to do things differently. So the company worked very hard, and therefore the impact was quite low. It was 1.5 days in terms of losses. So I think this is one of Marcopolo's strengths. We have a huge capacity to react. Whenever we have a difficulty, the team gets together fast and works fast. And in terms of support, foundation, we gave important support to our employees, family members, our team of sales reps that were affected. We're also supported by our customers. We had the task force to really bring customers' operations back to normal. And that has been recognized by all our customers in Porto Alegre. Marcopolo's capacity to cooperate, support, and help. [Foreign language]
Good morning, everyone. Congratulations on your result. I'm from Bradesco BBI. You talked about a possible increase of margin from 4-5 percentage points, considering gains in efficiency. Efficiency would be the better mix for the right slots. There are some movements you're making, going to other markets, taking practices of Brazil to international markets. I would like to know how much these factors are included in the 4-5 percentage points and if there's an upside of margin for the long term.
[Foreign langauge] I think that when we look at our [Foreign language] and value to customers. There's always the potential of being able to show, especially through product, that this is more qualified product, that at the end of the day, it's just not that you're paying more.
Operators themselves are able to recognize in practice that that product can have a better business case in terms of capital allocation. So in practice, when we are launching G8, for instance, and we saw that in Brazil and also in other markets, we are working with this product, is that indeed it has reduced fuel consumption. So all CapEx that you have in terms of investments of part of internal R&D, tooling to make this product available, generates more added value to the sale. In this context, we see that these new products may contribute to better margins. And when we consider positive results, you're talking about efficiency that adds value, reduces costs, and therefore increases margins. On the other side, you have issues related to inflation. You see the dollar going to a level that is very good for us in terms of exports.
We become even more competitive, but also we also have challenges with regards to commodities. We know that this level of volatility that we are going through is not that positive. It's good when the US dollar is high and it's kept high. But you know, when you have that much of fluctuation in negotiation with suppliers, you know, things get a bit more difficult. We don't see now major discussion in terms of price adjustment for inputs, but we know that at this scenario, you know, those things happen. So if you stop and think about, you know, downside in terms of costs, the instability in terms of the exchange rate can bring, you know, higher discussion in terms of commodity prices.
[Foreign language] Good morning, everyone. I am André Souza from Bates Participações, the whole board of Marcopolo. Congratulations on your results. I would like to hear from André about Marcopolo Rail, future prospects, investments, returns, and how do you see the market not only in Brazil, but also outside?
Thanks for your question. Marcopolo Rail, this is an interesting movement of the company. When you think about thinking about the future, right, way into the future, when you think of a segment that can cannibalize our business, trains can be that. Not in Brazil. We don't see that happening in the short midterm. But this is a diversification in a model that is synergic to ours, and that could be a potential segment to cannibalize our business. We see this happening in China. China developed trains and decreased the number of road buses. So this is a movement of the company when it wants to be a leading company in mobility solutions in a sustainable manner, which is our vision.
We see in Rail an interesting step to Marcopolo because of synergies, because investments are not very high. We basically put together a plant, a unit in Caxias do Sul, close to our operation. It has a level of demand that's quite interesting, special welding, traceability of product, non-flammability. So topics that, you know, helped us when we brought it in-house in addition to the strategic view. It brings us differentiators and knowledge that can be replicated to buses, and we have been doing that, rotating employees from one line to the other because you're talking about different units, but we are all in Ana Rech, Caxias do Sul. So Rail practically delivered the three compositions of two cars to Guarulhos Airport. The products are being tested. Remember, you're connecting the bus terminal to terminals one, two, and three of Guarulhos Airport.
Now we are manufacturing also three compositions with two cars each for an operator in Chile. We see a potential of renewal and additional sales of another three that is very much advanced also to Chile. So we are starting small. We are not creating a distraction to our business, a complementary team. It brings improvements that can be applied to the whole of the company. We set foot at a new model. So we are doing things gradually, continuous growth, steady developing. But it's interesting, André. We brought several representatives from agencies, governments, operators of the system to our plant. The kind of compliments we are hearing about what we put together, they are huge. Most operators, manufacturers, I mean, of trains left Brazil.
So we have been using this flag of having a product made in Brazil, basically resuming gradually and slowly the national industry and placing it in the context of train manufacturer. This is the movement we've been learning a lot. I think that we should consider diversification. I think this is a path to follow in terms of growth, diversification, using the essence of what we are good at. That's it.
[Foreign language]
Congratulations.
[Foreign language]
I have a question that is slightly long.
[Foreign language]
First, related to demand, road buses recovering strongly. But then the issue is we had, you know, a stoppage because of the pandemic, orders that were not being placed. I would like to know what is related to the pandemic. There was also, you know, passengers going from air traveling to bus traveling. So I would like to know the share. And then actual growth. Just for us to consider 2025. So these two factors first perhaps are going to affect less. And then we are going to have a better idea for road buses. And also urban buses, we know that Marcopolo always does very well on election buses. Do you think that 2025 is going to be a weaker year, or do you think you're going to have more consistent development? 2024 perhaps was not as good as other years in terms of election periods.
Well, volumes are not showing so strong. When you think of volumes produced in Brazil, one of the slides that Pablo showed, the production volume is below what would be necessary for fleet renewal and even keep the fleet age. So we do see a drop in 2022, 2023, and 2024, an aging of the fleet. We do not have a heated market. The production volume today shows an increase, especially because of the increase of microbuses compared to last year. But, you know, the second quarter of 2023, we had no Caminho da Escola, so it was very low. So most of the growth is explained by microbuses, a good performance of road buses, but not urban buses.
So in terms of volumes, we have a market scenario. It seems weird to say by presenting the results that we are presenting, but it's not very good. We do not have anything in the market that really strongly contributes for the market to growth. In the past, for instance, we had special financing subsidies from the government, quite the opposite.
Now, customers have to access credit lines at market prices, or market prices very close to economic prices. So nothing really is helping the market. Until a little ago, we expected a drop in interest rates. So, you know, if people could, you know, delay purchases, they would. So no contributions, the market is behaving with growth. But mostly because of microbuses. The movement of fleet renewal is just starting up at some point because if the fleet continues to age, it's not sustainable. So 25. [Foreign language] Theoretically, good. [Foreign language]
Next month, our plan is more of a deeper market with what it should be. [Foreign language] I'd like to invite you all, if you're interested, to take part of our Marcopolo Day. It's going to be on December 5th in Caxias do Sul. You're all invited to visit, take a look at our operations, visit the plant. It's going to be a very nice time in the fourth quarter. And again, if you can take part of Lat.Bus, 75 years of our history, August 6th, we are going to be showing you new products and solutions. Bom, nós é que agradecemos da disponibilidade de tempo. Thank you for your availability. Complete panel.
That's not, you know, what we have usually in terms of possibility. I hope you have enjoyed this opportunity. Questions, and don't forget the assessment survey. Thank you so.