Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the APIMEC Brasil meeting of Marcopolo S.A., where we will discuss the company's second quarter 2023 results, as well as the outlook for the remainder of the year. The audio of this meeting is being broadcast simultaneously on Marcopolo's IR website at ri.marcopolo.com.br, in both Portuguese and English, where the slide deck is also available. Before proceeding, let me clarify that any forward-looking statements made during this call about Marcopolo's business outlook, projections, and operational and financial targets and growth potential are forecasts based on the management's expectations regarding the company's future performance. These expectations are highly dependent on domestic and international market conditions and the country's macroeconomic scenario, and therefore are subject to change.
Joining us today for the APIMEC Brasil meeting in São Paulo are Mr. André Vidal Armaganijan, CEO, Pablo Freitas Mota, CFO, José Antonio Valiati, Investor Relations Officer, and Eduardo Willrich, Planning and Investor Relations Manager. We remind you that attendees will be in a listen-only mode during the call and will not be able to participate in the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please send an email to ri@marcopolo.com.br. The question will be answered later by the company's IR team.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for joining us today. This is the 22nd meeting in this continuous partnership with APIMEC. Here with me, I have André Vidal Armaganijan, the company's CEO, Pablo Freitas Mota, CFO, José Antonio Valiati, IR Officer, and Eduardo Frederico Willrich , IR Manager. Now, I turn the floor over to André Vidal, the company's CEO, who will present data regarding recent months.
Thank you all for joining us. Good morning to all of you who are here in person or online. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. First of all, I'd like to thank APIMEC and Mara, who's here today, for the partnership and support that they always give us during the APIMEC meetings. It's a great satisfaction to be here once again to share our second quarter 2023 results. Our presentation is going to be broken down into different sessions. First, Pablo Mota is going to give you some information about profile and results, then André is going to talk about performance and projections, and Eduardo is to talk about Marcopolo's results in the capital market. Without further ado, I'd like to invite Pablo to start with his presentation about the profile and results of the company.
Thank you, Valiati. Good morning, everyone. Let's get started by talking about the Marcopolo profile. We are a major player in the market of mobility solutions. More than ever, in recent quarters, after COVID, we were able to show and prove the value that Marcopolo has and has made available in its products and services. The company was founded in 1949, so 74 years of operations, with 13,000 employees manufacturing more than 14,000 buses a year. In terms of the highlights for the quarter, we had a net revenue growth of around 18.5%, growth in net export revenue from Brazil of 44.5%, growth in net revenue in Brazil, in spite of the drop in volumes of 12.8%. At the end of the slide here, you can see the hard work of recent years showing consistent results, even in a challenging scenario.
We have achieved gross margins of 20.2%, EBITDA margin of 11.6%, and net margins of 10.3% this quarter. It's important to highlight that when we look at the Brazilian scenario and Marcopolo's performance, looking at the Brazilian bus manufacturing history, we can see that the results that we are now achieving, not only this quarter, but ever since we left the COVID-19 impact in the end of 2021, has been shown to be much better than what had delivered up until then, but this is the result of this internal restructuring process that we started in the past. Looking at the history here, we see that 2012 and 2013, we were benefited by the federal government financing programs that boosted the demand of the domestic bus market.
Then when we look back to 2008, 2009, where we had a more sustainable level in terms of fleet renewal, we see that the average of renewal is of around 25,000 buses here in Brazil. In this context, we see that starting in 2013 and 2014, there was a significant drop in the demand volume, especially 2014 and 2015, there was a political and economic crisis here in Brazil that led the country to a recession, and that led to a drop in the production volume of around 65%. During that initial process, Marcopolo started to do its homework in order to optimize its industrial processes and at the same time to restructure its internal costs. After that, we've been resuming our previous levels in 2016-2019.
We believe that the market could be going back to the previous renewal level. That didn't happen because the pandemic hit, which had another major impact. What is important to highlight? In 2016 and 2017, we had the consolidation of operations in Brazil. That's when we incorporated 100% of the Sanremo operations, with new industrial parks being settled. From 2016 to 2020, we started restructuring the industrial parks using our production lines. Today, we have more efficient industrial parks with available capacity for increased demands if need be, depending only on hiring greater headcount to do that. That was an important point I wanted to highlight in this chart.
Another important point is that when we go into 2019, 2020, 2021, we also did our homework to optimize our fixed cost structure, and so that we could have a more sustainable scenario in that environment full of insecurity when COVID-19 hit, but also preparing for the reopening process so that we could come back and operate with an adjusted fixed cost structure. In this context, it's also important to highlight that Marcopolo never stopped developing its products. Even in times in which the market did not have the same demand, we continued developing our products, and then in 2021, we had a low scenario, but we launched a new scenario of buses from 2021 to 2022. Generation eight was launched at the turn of the year.
We were still in a low market in which people were not using intercity buses that much. We launched a new line to prepare for the end of the pandemic and to put in practice what we usually say, that we are a major player in mobility solutions. What am I trying to say? That even in low times, we go through important cultural changes at Marcopolo. James worked hard to work on the company's culture to revitalize basic concepts, also optimizing processes, looking at pricing, looking at all the hard work we did in order to recover our margins, considering the inflation impact that we had suffered. Then we started the year of 2022 with differentiated products, renewed processes, and transformed people who are ready to make things happen. 2022 showed the results of all that.
The domestic market was still way below of what we had in 2012 and 2013, and even lower than 2008 and 2009, where that market was actually stabilized. That shows that we still have a great potential when it comes to the recovery of the domestic market. Exports volumes are still going through a scenario in which we have a favorable US dollar exchange rate. Volare delivered 4,600 units in 2022, adding value to our national production. Looking at 2023, we can see that we have already delivered 9,000 units to the domestic market, 1,200 units for the external market, and 1,200 units of the Volare model, showing a 11.25% growth.
Year-over-year, for the first six months, showing that we have a significant fleet renewal potential here in Brazil. When we look at the numbers, we can see that we have a circulating fleet that is not being renewed in Brazil for now. For 2022, we had 387,000 vehicles circulating, urban buses, road buses and microbuses. When we look at the average fleet age, this leads us to believe that the potential fleet renewal at a national level is still very significant, so that Brazil can go back to an average age of around eight years. We need a vehicle purchase above that average of the last 25 years.
Talking about our quarterly production scenario, another positive factor when it comes to the changes that were implemented during the transformation process that we went through, especially during the pandemic, we can see that we have a production volume below our potential. We are working with representative margins when compared to our historical average. We were able to reposition our prices and manage the inflation context during the pandemic, we have effectively improved our internal processes, making this a differential for Marcopolo. Looking at the Brazilian production. Comparing 2022 to 2023, we had a reduction in the production volume, down 12%. In exports, we had a reduction from 445 to 394, in external units, a drop from 583 to 551.
In spite of this drop in production volume, we saw a significant increase in revenue in the year-over-year comparison. Now, internationally speaking, South Africa went from 53 units to 88 units. South Africa is showing a recovery of the internal market with great expectations in terms of their portfolio. Australia went from 74 to 115. They're also going through a restructuring process of their internal operations, improving their operational efficiency and product delivery. This is a market that is not as relevant when it comes to quantity, but it's very relevant in absolute values, so they have been through the industrial process improvement. Now, China had a drop from 46 to 13 units. China is a major hub of the process to develop products and technologies, especially when it comes to renewable energies. Mexico went to 2015 to 283.
A recovery of the Mexican market nearshore, and it's helping us boost that market and make business happen. Argentina had a drop from 195 to 52 units. There was a change in the mix. The company left the urban mix behind, which has the greatest volume, and is starting to go into the heavy vehicle and road markets, boosted by the local tourism and being able to price its products in line with the Argentinian context. Looking at the comparison of the second quarter with the first quarter, we went from 3,100 cars to 2,133. In terms of body production in the first quarter, 336 Volares to 881 in the second quarter.
I said earlier that this was a challenging quarter, because in the first quarter we had the introduction of Euro 6 in Brazil. Euro 6, on its own, needs to go through a very long process of licensing of the chassis, and that led more complex processes because these products were not fully licensed, and I'm talking about the chassis on the part of the OEM. We spent the first quarter going through the licensing projects. The great OEMs had a bottleneck in the bus production, and that led to a volume of deliveries in Q2 that was lower to what we had delivered in Q1. We also had the effect of program Caminho da Escola . We had a higher volume of Caminho da Escola products delivered in Q1 and in Q2, so that led to a lower number of products delivered in Q2.
With our repositioning of pricing and restructuring of internal processes, we were able to deliver gross margins of 20% and EBITDA margins of around 12%. Marcopolo has been working really hard to keep these levels and to improve them as greater volumes come with operational leverage. Our headcount in Q1 was capped, even with a lower demand in Q2, so we had lower operational efficiency in Q2. Q3, we'll have a portfolio that will be stabilized with Euro 6, and we believe we'll be able to make better use of such structure. Finally, the revenue in Brazil grew by 12.8%. Exports, this is a quarterly comparison, a growth of 44.5%, and revenue abroad, growth of 16%. That was the growth in revenue we had in spite of the lower production.
Gross margin, 8.8 percentage points growth, quarter-over-quarter. Looking at the first half of 2023, we had a performance of 22.1%. I mentioned earlier that our headcount was capped throughout the quarter. That has a direct impact on gross margins. EBITDA margin, 11.6%, 7.1 percentage points above second quarter of 2022. Net profit, 10.3% net margin this quarter, and 12.5% in the first half of 2023 in net profit. Net revenue distribution. Road buses or intra-city Marcopolo, again, being a major player in developing products, even in times of crisis, that stands us out in this recovery process after the pandemic.
We can see that today, approximately 39% of our revenue comes from higher added value products, intercity products. We're talking here specifically about G8, as André will mention later. We have the urban segment that is increasing in relevance in our business. We had a lower volume of Caminho da Escola . That had a small drop. Even so, we leave the pandemic with the urban segment gaining added value because the government is also coming in, providing subsidies and giving more economic capacity to operators. Other revenues, Volare. Still very significant share here. In the other market chart, you saw also Volare numbers. That we can look at this business line that is now completing 25 years. That has been a major differential in terms of delivering products and value to the market.
Now, I'd like to turn the floor over to André, and I'll be available for questions later. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to see you once again. I see some familiar faces here, and this great opportunity to talk about Marcopolo. I'm going to talk about the intra-city segment first. Our company has had a heavy mix of products, as we had mentioned in other occasions. The market leaving the pandemic with a significant movement of passenger in all markets. We had record levels at the end of the year and record months during the recovery in Chile and Argentina. These were markets in which we had very interesting movements, and we were already forecasting that opportunity of incentivizing our intercity sales. The price of airfare also favored us.
The airfare is very high in the market, very expensive, and we see the transition of people from higher social classes that were not common user of buses to test this type of transportation, enjoy it, and then start using this. In mid-2021, Marcopolo made the decision of launching G8. In mid-2021, we were still halfway through the pandemic. Everyone considering that the pandemic could last longer, and Marcopolo made a brave decision to launch this product in the market. If we hadn't done so, we could had a could have had a negative impact on the product line. We developed this product for three to four years. We tested it on thousands of kilometers.
We made use of the company's expertise to launch a product that would favor not only passengers with high comfort levels, but also drivers with safety, and our main customer, operators who are worried about operating costs, fuel saving, and all of that. That was all put in practice in this product. We knew that the market was going through a recovery and that the customers needed to generate revenue, so we kept the G7 line available at a more competitive price in the market so that our customers could choose. The end of the story, while the market has been recovering, that's one of the beauties of the bus business. If you don't renew a fleet in one year, you generate a need to renew your fleet the following year, because that leads to lower maintenance costs, and that happened to G8.
We saw a major boost in the sales of G8 against G7. Now, 90% of the DDs that leave our Marcopolo plants have the G8 model. The market has been accepting the new generation really well. We see customers that stopped buying from the competitors to start buying so start by G8, and we have interesting stories of customers in all markets of Latin America repeating their purchases of G8. The product has been very well accepted with recurring purchases. These are products with higher added value, and we left the pandemic with strong sales of light intracity for buses and people transportation. We started also selling the heavy intracity products. We have a heavier mix of products, which led to the increase of revenue.
Urban segment, well, 2022, we already had significant subsidies, passengers going back to the system after the pandemic, and the first quarter of last year, we still had the Omicron wave hitting us. If we compare the second quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2022, we still had the pandemic hitting, and passengers were going back to the system slowly, with subsidies happened and also cities buying buses powered by diesel. We now have relevant sales to Rio de Janeiro , with over 400 vehicles sold, some already manufactured and built, and others being manufactured. That also generated a positive effect, the urban segment, and the major change in the electrical segment. Electrical buses were going into the market. We knew that.
For many years now, we had been discussing with our partners the development of the electrical solution, and we made an important decision because we knew that Latin America would be the next market to be achieved by this. First, China, Europe, then the U.S., and then Latin America. We made the decision of developing our own electric solution. Marcopolo stopped being a bus body manufacturer only and started offering the full solution for electric buses. Of course, we will continue working with our chassis partners that are now offering electric solutions to the Brazilian and Latin American market, but now we have our own product to serve the national and international markets. We have produced over 30 units in the first half of the year. These buses are already available in many cities, so good product performance in this new segment.
Marcopolo is now also mastering the technology of electrification, and the second quarter, with a batch production of 100 units that will be made available to the market. The Brazilian industry can meet the growing demand for electric vehicles, and Marcopolo is fully able to do that. 2,600 buses by the end of 2024, one of the greatest market of urban buses in the world, and we can offer our solutions either with our full solution or in partnership with third-party chassis for the electric segment. Now, for microbuses, the volume of the Caminho da Escola was lower, 180 units in the second quarter of 2023, and we know how relevant this program, Caminho da Escola , is.
We knew that we would have this valley, as we call it internally, of the slow season, because the new competition did not happen, so we knew that valley would happen, so we worked internally to find alternatives to offset that valley. Caminho da Escola is a very important segment for us, so during the valley, we focused on other operations, many private operations, many bidding processes. So we were able to somehow offset the lack of sales to the Caminho da Escola program. Volare, celebrating 25 years of history, a very successful product in the company, in the microbus segment. This is the market leader, not only in Brazil, but in markets to which we export, and it is a competitor to other senior products.
This has been shown to be a very successful product, with more than 77,000 units being made available in the market. This is a product with a very positive acceptance. Now, talking about international operations, I'm sure we had the perfect storm. Marcopolo enjoyed or make the most of the low period to do its homework and come out stronger from this period of time. We had to reduce and close out some plants. Unfortunately, we had this relevant low period, but we had a significant recovery afterwards. International operations went through relevant structure changes, and now we are harvesting the fruits of that process. There is not only the recovery of the bus market, but we also implemented many internal actions to improve the company's results. In South Africa, we had relevant changes in the operations management.
We knew that there was a large number of orders coming into the South African market. We brought someone from Marcopolo, Brazil, to do the RMPA process and prepare the plant for that. The plant is now, they're re-delivering numbers that is way higher than our history. The plant is prepared to meet the demand of the order portfolio that we expect to receive. We already have the orders placed for the whole year. There is a growth in the urban segment. We also expect the intercity products to be exported from Brazil to South Africa, in this case, the G7. They had a turnaround a few years later. Now we're harvesting the fruits of this market growth. Argentina also went through a significant transformation. We consolidated two operations into one. We had an urban operation in Buenos Aires and an intercity operation in Rosario.
We consolidated these two operations. There was a need to place Marcopolo's controls, and not only this, which Marcopolo did greatly, but also transforming the culture. If you now go to the Rosario plant, you'll see that the company's culture or the company's DNA is there. We are now much better prepared to serve the market needs. We had a backlog of products that was cleared, and we're now working on the sales of new products, especially intercity products, and we have a full portfolio to sell these intercity products throughout the year of 2023. Australia, we are also turning around their operations there in Australia, just like we did in Argentina. We have a group of local people and Brazilian people working hard on these operations. We have taken our expertise in controls, procurement, engineering, processes, and in the industrial area to the country.
We have turned the operations around, and we now have a delivery capacity that is much higher than we had previously. This is fruit of the increased efficiency of these operations, and we see positive outlooks for Australia. Australia also has a need to renew the market with electric buses. You can see the new 2,000, 3,000 cars being announced as a need to renew the electric segment, and Marcopolo is already positioned in selling electric buses with our traditional partners, either from Asia or Europe. A positive opportunity for these operations. China, a more strategic operation for Marcopolo, smaller operation, but which is the foundation for the developing of new technologies. Many partnerships that we have been establishing are related to those partnerships in China. We started to export products to the African continent, products manufactured in China with local partners there.
Our presence there in China is more strategic. Recently, we have developed and presented in Europe a hydrogen-powered bus. Colombia also suffered from the spike in costs of materials. We also had a backlog to be cleared. We virtually finished clearing that backlog, and we see a positive recovery there. As a reminder, Colombia is a market that relies on major bids, but we are also a market leader there in all of the segments where we operate, with a differentiated position in the Colombian market. Mexico, great news for us. The Mexican market also had great acceptance of our intercity product. That market is of around 1,500 units. During the pandemic, they achieved around 700 units, and now we see a significant recovery of the market going on.
This year, 1,200 units being sold in the industry, not Marcopolo, but that generates great opportunities for Marco- Marcopolo, especially because the G8 product is being very well accepted. We continue developing a product for the U.S. market. We are producing vehicles weekly for this market, but we're being careful for a good launch. The vehicles are being tested, the customers have given us the first feedbacks, and we are in a testing phase so that we can have a very successful product as all other Marcopolo products in that market. Now, about the projections. Well, Eduardo has been talking to you about the low period in the quarter with the Euro VI transition. OEMs had to develop and license many new products. We knew that that would lead to a delay that would affect our sales. We tried to offset that with exports and international results.
The truth is that this is now behind us. This was happening in the second quarter. All Euro Six microbus and intercity buses being developed, so we see a positive trend from now on, when it comes to this transition. This is behind us now. Marcopolo was also impacted by the increased cost in materials last year, as well as shortage of materials, but our suppliers are now more stable, so we don't expect any shortage of materials in the coming months. About our portfolio, we have an interesting order portfolio. Sales orders in the last two months were higher than in the previous two months, so we see great outlooks for the third and fourth quarter. The company is preparing in order to meet the demands of this additional volume that is coming in.
An important decision was made in the past to reduce the structure, partially due to the pandemic, that we need to hire people, but then we hired new people, trained them, developed them, and now during this valley period, we kept these people in our operations, thinking about the employees themselves and also thinking about the positive prospects for the company. We made the most of this period, training people, so we now have a more qualified team to meet the growing demand of the coming months. We also did an interesting work of transforming our culture at Marcopolo. Eduardo and I have been talking about that in our meetings with you. This is a slow but consistent process to make the most of our positives at Marcopolo and to boost this.
Marcopolo is an intensive labor company, our employees and the strength of our management are key to transform the company's results, and that has been happening. Our team has been stronger and stronger and more united and energized to turn the company's results around. Future our outlook. Interest rates are going down. Yesterday, we saw the announcement of a drop in the Selic rate . That has a positive impact on us. The new bid for Caminho da Escola , we spent seven months awaiting the competition, and now they did a request for prices, which was announced for over 16,000 units. We are now establishing our partnerships to meet the market demands. Marcopolo is a company that has great conditions and will fight for the major share of this product. New Flyer. We are investors in this company.
There was an increase in capital there, but we did not want to be diluted at this point. What is happening at New Flyer happened in many companies here in Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, with an order portfolio that needs readjustments and needs efficiency improvements. We believe that the company was going through this process as well, and we didn't want to be diluted at this time. Now, I'd like to turn the floor over to Eduardo, who's going to talk about the capital market.
Thank you, André. Well, I actually want to invite you all, who are here in person or connected remotely, to visit Marcopolo in Caxias do Sul on September 5th, during Marcopolo Day. That's a great opportunity to be in touch with the company's management and an opportunity to visit our plants and get to know more about our operations.
We're going to show you an electric vehicle. You'll be able to ride this vehicle, and we are going to provide a tour of our plant there. I wanna invite you all to come visit the company. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the product and about our operations, and to feel what the company's situation is, being there locally, in person. Now, the payout of dividends. We announced that we would go back to our quarterly dividend payout policy, and at the end of the quarter, we were able to do that in July, paying dividends, which is something we had not done since 2014. We were able to go back to that old policy of the company, which shows also what the company is planning to do with its resources.
Now, we had a valuation of over 100% in 12 months. Looking at the last two months, more than 120% increase in share value, and the daily traded volume went from BRL 50 million to over BRL 40 million traded on a daily basis. Now we're going to open for questions.
The technology, the Chinese BYD technology, is that what you're using, or have you developed the technology from scratch?
Thank you for your question. BYD is one of the Chinese players that offer this electric solution, not only to Brazil, but to several markets, but we have developed our own solution. To date, Marcopolo can sell electric buses with the BYD chassis, we have done that with over 10 units in São José dos Campos , more than 400 in our Colombia market, about 40 in Australia with the BYD chassis. We also developed our own solution. Marcopolo made the decision of having the software intelligence in-house because the strength of the electric technology is the software which manages battery and controls the product, defining the number of kilowatts hour for the product. This technology was developed by us. We have software engineers working at Marcopolo, that was a positive decision that we made. All of the components, axles, brakes, and engines, we are using market components for that, which was very well accepted because these are shelf products that our customers know and trust. The heart of the electric solution is the software development that was done in-house here at Marcopolo, and we see interesting results in the first tests.
You said that you had a big problem with Euro 6. Is that related to ESG?
Just to make it clear, I'm glad you asked this question. We didn't have a problem with Euro 6. We only had a delay because of the number of projects that chassis manufacturers had to develop, and these projects led to a delay and a reduction in sales. The first point here is about technique, the need to develop this whole range of products that the Brazilian market demands.
There is also a period for customer acceptance, because Euro 6 is a new and more expensive technology, so there was also an increase in prices for the Euro 6 chassis, and we knew that that would lead to a lower level of deliveries in Q2 because of those projects and market acceptance.
That's not related to ESG?
No, it's not.
Can you tell us more about ESG at the company?
Marcopolo's philosophy on ESG is the following: we have many actions being taken, and these are not only actions that were planned to meet the new ESG demands, but actions that we already did and believe in at Marcopolo. Governance actions, environmental actions, worrying about the disposal of products and development of new technologies.
We have a strong R&D team trying to find innovative solutions for us, and that also generate opportunities in the environmental sphere. G8 also changed many materials. We decreased the number of fibers in the buses, which are more complex to dispose of. Our buses now have innovations with lighter and more noble materials that increase fuel efficiency. In the social sphere, Marcopolo has also been taking many actions. We have a Marcopolo foundation doing great work in Caxias do Sul , and we have been replicating this in other regions, not only in Brazil. São Mateus is an example of that, but also in our plants abroad. ESG is one of our focuses, and it's bringing results in all of the spheres.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Andreia Sousa . I represent Velt Partners . I would like to greet the new CEO, André, the new CFO, Pablo, good morning, Valiati and Pablo. My question, André, relates to two topics that you shared with us, and I'd like you to give us further details about this. About New Flyer, no Flyer. Marcopolo's view on this investment. Is there any other synergies that you can mention with the company? You also talked about articulated urban buses, especially in São Paulo and Rio. We see the new corridors are being created in Rio, an important part of Avenida Brasi l, with a corridor to be open soon, and I would like to know your outlook for articulated buses in the next two years.
Thank you, André. Starting with your question about the articulated buses, that's one of our hubs. If you look at the mass transportation market in many countries around the world, Marcopolo has worked intensely with the sales in Curitiba, the TransMilenio system in Colombia, the Transantiago and Red system in Chile. Marcopolo has an active participation in all of those segments, and it interests us because this is a segment of higher added value. We also talked about the transition from the light road segment to the heavy road segment that enhances the revenue. We like working in the segments where we have higher demand and higher technology. This is a movement that benefits the cities. This is a great opportunity to restructure the urban systems. We see the number of cars moving around the streets, and we see a great opportunity to take people to public transportation, BRT and buses or other models of transportation.
We see a great opportunity there. We're selling buses to Rio de Janeiro. We see an opportunity also in São Paulo. We're also selling electric articulated buses. This is in our DNA. We've been doing that for many years now, and we believe that a transition like this benefits the city, the structuring the system better, and it brings benefits to manufacturers who have expertise in this area. We have 74 years of history. We're actually celebrating 74 years of history on Sunday, we have this amazing experience to work in this segment. Now, talking about New Flyer. Thinking about the rationale of that investment, New Flyer, was something we invested in in 2013. In a primary offer, they increased their capital and were able to do some M&As and strengthen their operations. In 2016, they had significant growth.
Their management interacted with operators, creating government programs in the U.S. and Canada, which increased the worth of their shares, and the company expanded into new markets, developing products with high added value. That's when we established a commercial partnership, when Brazil was going through a political and economic crisis. We went from 1999 to around 10 at that time. After that, New Flyer surfed the wave of the U.S. market development solution, trying to expand to other markets. Of course, we were still part of this, although our representativeness was lower, but we were always, you know, keep track of that. Then the pandemic hit. The company had a high leverage. All the market segments were impacted by the pandemic. After the pandemic, they also suffered the inflation impact on the long tail.
They're going through a complicated liquidity landscape with levels that are lower than those of 2013. We joined the company, but they're doing a financial restructuring and creating a new amortization schedule for their debts. Although this is not a strategic investment now, we believe that the scenario they're going through right now is very similar to what happened in Brazil. We were not as impacted by inflation because we didn't have such a long tail at the time, but Nufire had a major backlog of orders, and they are now renewing their portfolio with expectations to start manufacturing and delivering products with low prices by the end of the year or beginning of next year.
This company has interesting strengths, and the U.S. market is benefited by the renewal movement now, all of the Inflation Act that was passed in the beginning of the year, fostering $2.5 billion in sales of electric vehicles and urban mobility infrastructure. We believed it made sense to keep our stake there at Nufire and keep on tracking their shares without diluting our stake. We expect that the company will start generating good results again, because what they're doing is very much aligned with the premises that we adopt, not only in Brazil, but in all of our units.
Good morning, this is Victor from Bradesco BBI. First, I'd like to congratulate on the results. I have two questions. My first question is, Caminho da Escola , you mentioned, André, 16,000 units. I think the market was expecting around 11,000. Has the competition been published, mentioned this number of 16,000 or not? Do you think there will be a concentration in 2024? How is Marcopolo prepared to meet this demand next year? My second question is about the U.S. market. You talked about the testing phase of the bus for the U.S. market. When do you expect to have the official launch, and what is the market size?
Thank you for your question. Starting with Caminho da Escol a. FNDE did a price request. Based on the deadlines, we see that we will not have sales this year. Marcopolo understood that we would have this major gap in sales of Caminho da Escola , which was a significant part of our deliveries, but we implemented many actions to offset that. We don't have a deadline being mentioned there.
They just did a request for proposals. During the low period, we kept our headcount so that we would not lose capacity as a company, and we could also prepare the people for increased plant efficiency. Marcopolo is prepared. We have a share of this Caminho da Escola market, as you know, so we trained and developed our people to be able to meet this demand when it comes. We don't know for sure when this program will happen, but the announcement is for higher numbers than we expected. Now, your second question about the U.S. Before we go to the U.S., Eduardo, would you like to add anything?
The public hearing said 11,400 units. This has been lingering since February. We've been talking about the tender since February. As time goes by, there is a need for additional volume. The bid could have happened in February, so it's like six months of an additional volume being added there. During the public hearing, they also talked about this additional demand that was not met in previous years. The program had been purchasing less than they needed to renew their original fleet, so there was also this backlog of renewal. The public hearing mentioned 11,400, and in the request for proposals, the number that was even higher, 16,000 units. We believe there won't be any deliveries in 2023, and that volume will probably be capped for 2024.
Thank you. About the U.S. The U.S. market usually launched as originally in some specialized shows. We showed the microbus for the manufactured in Mexico. The look is completely different. They really enjoy the design and the technical features, but they also mentioned some adaptation needs. We made those adjustments recently. We are planning to produce from 50 to 70 units by the end of the year for the U.S. market. The product is already being manufactured. It's being tested on the roads, highways, but we received feedback and made some adjustments. We're also localizing some items because this project was developed in Brazil. We're now localizing the items for the Mexican market so that we can be more competitive and reduce the lead time. That's the outlook. We have a person there, living in the U.S. We have an office open there. We want to start working closer with the customers this year to understand the market and offer the best product we can.
Leonardo Ribeiro from BB Investimentos . I have a question about the drop in sales in the Chinese market and about the main challenges of Euro 6. Can you tell us more about this?
What was your second question?
The main challenges of implementing Euro 6 processes.
Okay. First, talking about China. China has been a small market in terms of sales for a very long time. If you look at all of Marcopolo plants, I mean, the lowest manufacturing volume is in China. China had a drop in urban buses because of their high speed train that was launched, but we almost don't sell in China.
We have a plant in China, we mostly export the products that are manufactured there to Africa and Asia. The drop in the market there is still related to the effects of the pandemic. China went through one of the longest lockdowns in the world, and traditional sales that we had to Hong Kong, Myanmar, were affected there, and the sales dropped. Our operations there is much smaller. We're talking about volume reduction, but it's from a small quantity to a smaller quantity. We wanna have this in-person presence there because of the new technologies that we have been developing there and discussing the strategic partnerships, the hydrogen-powered vehicle that we presented to the European market as an example of that. We also have operations in Australia, not only China. We have a level of connection between the two operations.
We have an opportunity for global sourcing. China is a market with an interesting technology, and today, the Chinese market, we have this technology hub, innovation, global sourcing, and development of strategic partnerships. Oh, about Euro 6. Euro 6 , we had a delay in chassis, as we told you earlier. It wasn't one single problem, but the number of projects ongoing in Brazil for buses, it's impressive to see. This is one of the largest bus markets in the world, with a huge variability of products, micro buses, urban buses, road buses, and all different configurations and setups. It took a while for the OEMs to go through the transition. This is not happening only in Brazil, but also in Colombia right now, and there is a delay happening there as well. Yes, there was a delay here on part of our partners.
The positive message I have to give you, Leonardo, is that more than 90% of all of the developments needed for Euro 6, on the part of chassis manufacturers and on our part, we, we are in the downstream here, but these 90% of all of these projects have been completed now, so we don't see any major problems from now on.
This is Fernanda from BTG Pactual . I have two questions. First, about the competition for Caminho da Escola . What are you expecting in terms of type of buses and so on, since we already know what the volume will be? Now, about the average age, what is the production level that is needed to keep the average age, and what would be the additional production to lower the average age to eight years?
About Caminho da Escola . They have already mentioned air conditioning in all of the buses, so that's an improvement in the product that generates an upside for Marcopolo and for the market in general. A higher quality product has a higher added value, and also automated gear, this also generates a higher added value product. These are the two main points, in addition to a higher volume, right? Quite significant volume there. Now, another point related to the average age. We wanted to go back to a number that Marcopolo has been talking for a very long time. 100 Volares, 27,000 buses. With Volare, that would add about 4,000 units. 27,000 without Volare and another 4,000 units with Volare. That would go back to a level that is close to that of 2014 or even 2007, 2008, as Pablo mentioned.
This is not volume. I mean, the volume that we're manufacturing in 2022 is still low. Although there is a significant growth as compared to the volumes during the pandemic, this is not a normal level yet. We would wanna go back to 30,000 at least, which is something that we've been working hard to get for a very long time now. It. We were expecting to reach it in 2020, but then the pandemic hit, so now we are expecting to be able to achieve that number in 2024.
Hi, everyone. This is Fernanda from XP. I have a question about the government incentive program. We see higher adherence to light vehicles than trucks and buses. Have you seen changes in the demand because of this program or not?
Thank you for your question. Well, in practice, when we talk about the program, the program is much more simple and practical to be executed now, because the vehicles were ready and dealers could give direct discounts to end consumers based on the inventory they had available. Now, about heavy vehicles, if we look at the decrees that were published, the last one was published this week. We had to work together with the Ministry of the Development and the National Traffic Council to create these ordinances with the premises to put this in practice. We had to define the process, because in a heavy vehicle, you have to buy the chassis from the OEM and the body from another manufacturer.
We had to establish the setup for a product that would not have an available inventory, all the step-by-step, and the recycling of vehicles that had been used for over 20 years. That generated some bureaucratic barriers, but the operators have been adhering to the program, and we think that this is more concentrated on the sales of chassis and the vehicles of the Volare line, because we already have an interesting inventory of these vehicles that will be used in the coming months. Based on the high average age of the fleet, this is an interesting program created by the government because it fosters these new businesses. We believe that while the coming quarter, I mean, this quarter, we should have an upside coming from this program. Realizing this inventory and in the purchase of chassis that will then get body. Bureaucracy for the heavy vehicles was much higher than for light vehicles, indeed.
Good morning, everyone. This is Frederico from Warren Investimentos . Can you please comment on the dynamic of gross margins, and more specifically, about the difference between G8 and G7? Can you also give us some flavor about the price of raw materials, especially in July, as compared to April, May and June, and your expectations for the remainder of the year?
Sure. Thank you. About gross margins for G7 against G8. In practice, we are now delivering to the market a product with higher value features. When we look at all of the investments made in G8, I mean, we're now trying to price these value features, showing the customers all of their OpEx reduction features. We have more than 1,000 buses delivered in the G8 line. Customers have been able to see this with their own eyes. When we look at the gross margins comparing G8 to G7, we understand that increased prices that led to increased margins. We're also working hard to get some materials that can lead to a possible raw material price reduction. That's not the main point, but value features here. Now, about the cost of materials. The inflation scenario has some specific peaks, but it's now much more stable than it was two years ago, when we saw some raw materials getting a cost increase of more than 100% in a short period of time.
We see that the scenario is more stable now, of course, we're tracking this, because when we have social programs fostering construction and other things, we know that this can have an impact on commodity prices. When compared to the previous months, I'd say we have a stable inflation scenario.
Can I just ask one final question about ESG, but from a different perspective now?
The country took on the commitment before the UN to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the climate issue was meant to be for 2030, but many important changes were made before that deadline. Some cities and states are now preparing for an energy transition, mobility and sustainability are issues that are being discussed in most of the Brazilian capital cities. Also green fuel. There are studies that show that green hydrogen can have more capture than electric cars, so they would be more sustainable.... than electric cars or green hydrogen. Many companies have made commitments for 2030. We have COP 30 happening in 2025 in Belém.
What do you expect to have more transition to green hydrogen, electric vehicles, and by when should we expect this transition to happen?
Thank you for your question. Yes, Marcopolo is a leading player here in the region, offering one of the best solutions for decarbonization. We have been developing solutions with partners for a while now, and we made the decision of manufacturing our own vehicle, and we have over 700 electric buses on the street, in the Brazilian market and in the international market.
That's our focus, to meet the decarbonization targets that are coming up in the market. The electric cars, I mean, this is something that started in China, then Europe and U.S., and then it came to Latin America, started in Colombia and Chile, and now we see a positive movement in Brazil and Mexico. We just made a partner, we just sold 21 vehicles with a partner in Mexico with this electric solution. About the timing, well, it's hard to say. The cities are preparing, getting structured. There is a whole issue of financial model structure to make this business feasible and finance and feasible. There are many issues at stake here so that the system can be well structured. I think that Marcopolo, as a manufacturer, has ready solutions to meet the market demand, and we also have the capacity needed.
The national industry has a great capacity to meet the demand of electric vehicles, either with our own solution or with partners that manufacture electric chassis, and this is very much related to this decarbonization trend. We know that hydrogen is the next step after the electric vehicle, especially for long distances, long-haul products. We had buses circulating in Itaipu with hydrogen, and we developed a recent solution, a recent electric solution. We used our presence in China to get in touch with partners, and we presented a solution in Germany. We were the only hydrogen, I mean, the only hydrogen-powered bus in that show in Europe was a Marcopolo product. That's what we do. We are, you know, leading players in this transformation. We can also use our bus body with other electric chassis that are available in the market.
How fast is this going to happen? It's hard to say. We believe that the electrification would come. Not everyone believed in that, but Marcopolo believed in that and was brave enough to develop its own electric vehicle. We did this because we believed that the demand would come, and we wanted to have a solution because we didn't wanna lose market share, since we're market leaders in Latin America. It's very hard to just tell you when this is going to happen, but we have full conditions, either in terms of capacity or product, to meet those demands, and this is already happening. We have over 700 electric vehicles with Marcopolo bodies on the streets around the world, and we're also building 130 this year with our own solution.
Let me ask one final question to Pablo. Do we have expectations of other revenues or extraordinary revenues for the coming quarters? Especially because of assets or properties that are not being used, are they going to be sold or leased, or do you have any other plans for those properties?
Well, thank you for your question. Talking about our properties. In the process that we started in 2016 and 2017 to revisit our industrial parks, after leaving the operations in Caxias do Sul , we had this property available in Planalto and Ana Rech , a property where San Marino plant used to be based. San Marino, which was incorporated by Marcopolo. We have these two properties, and we've been working to solve all the environmental issues to make these properties available for sales. Of course, we don't wanna make a forced sale. We want to get an appropriate value for those properties.
Now with these expectations in the domestic market, we believe that these properties can be valued in a fair way, we're working for this to happen. These are properties that are available for sales. We've been talking to potential buyers, there's nothing concrete for now. If it all happens as we expect. We will be glad to announce the sales of the properties. For the assets we have, these are two significant properties that can bring cash in-house.
That completes our session. I would like to thank you all for joining us. It's always a very, a very good opportunity to talk to all of you. You got a questionnaire about this presentation. We wanna hear your feedback. It's really important to get your feedback, 'cause this can lead to an APIMEC award at the end of the year, a quality award.
All of the companies that present their results with APIMEC can compete for that award. Since we talked about green hydrogen, I would like to tell you that APIMEC is holding an event in Fortaleza for three days to visit the Port of Pecém . They have more than 30 MOUs with companies that are interested in producing green hydrogen there. We will hold an event in the city of Fortaleza with a visit to the Port of Pecém , and there will be a day talking about sustainability and urban mobility as well. This is a great opportunity for us to discuss all of these issues. I would like to thank Marcopolo, and let you know that this is the 22nd year in which we are holding these meetings.
This is a sign of partnership and disclosure of the company, working closely with the market, very concerned about governance. I'd like to thank you all. This is a seal, André, of 22 years of participation with your presentations together with APIMEC. Congratulations on this. Thank you for the beautiful work that you do with a lot of transparency, giving everyone the opportunity to learn more about the company.